Systems and methods for intelligently managing storage space occupied by media assets

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods are provided reducing storage space occupied by a media asset by adjusting quality levels of the media asset downward over time. This may be accomplished by a media guidance application that store, at a given time, the media asset in a first format having a first quality level. The media guidance application retrieves, from a database, a data entry corresponding to the media asset and determines, based on the data entry, a threshold period of time for storing the media asset in the first format. The media guidance application detects whether the threshold period of time since the given time has passed and responds by altering a first portion of the media asset from the first format having the first quality level to a second format having a second quality level that is inferior to the first quality level.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a national stage application under 35 U.S.C. § 371of International Application PCT/US2018/021845, filed Mar. 9, 2018,which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Digital video recorders (“DVRs”) allow users to record and playbackmedia assets (e.g., videos, television episodes, movies, etc.). ModernDVR systems make it simple to record entire series and record showsrelated to other recordings. Some DVRs may automatically recordrecommended media assets based on shows users of the DVR have watched inthe past. Furthermore, a user may desire to record many media assets ona DVR system. And users often record media assets in high quality levelsrequiring large amounts of storage space. Therefore, modern DVR systemsrequire a large amount of storage space to accommodate recordings basedon user's habits to record many media assets in high quality. Even witha large amount of storage space, eventually the DVR will approach itslimit on storage space and be unable to record additional media assetswithout freeing storage space as additional media assets are recorded.

SUMMARY

Accordingly, systems and methods are provided herein for enhancing themanagement of storage of media assets in DVR systems. For example, whileDVR systems make it easy for a user to record media assets to view at alater time, DVR systems have limited storage systems that willeventually fill with recorded media assets if the storage space is notproperly managed. Moreover, it is not uncommon for users to record showsin higher quality levels, which occupy additional storage space withinDVR systems. Thus, modern DVR systems have created a technologicalenvironment that worsens the storage of media assets by storingadditional media assets in higher qualities, which quickly fill thestorage space of a DVR. And deleting media assets to reclaim storagespace is not desirable as the deleted media assets are then no longeravailable for viewing. To rectify this problem, systems and methods aredescribed herein for intelligently managing recordings of media assetsin the storage of the DVR. Systems and methods are described formanaging media assets by, for example, altering recordings from higherquality level recordings to lower quality level recordings automaticallyaccording to the age of the recording, with the lower quality levelrecordings requiring less recording space in storage.

In some embodiments, a media guidance application may manage storagespace occupied by a media asset by adjusting the quality levels of themedia asset over time. When the media guidance application stores themedia asset, the media asset is in a format that has a quality level.For example, a user may have a preference for storing media assets in ahigh quality, e.g., high definition (“HD”) or 4K resolution (“4K”), withthe media guidance application. But high-quality level media assetsrequire more storage space than storing the same content in a lowerquality level such as standard definition (“SD”). The embodiments aredescribed herein with reference to 4K, HD, and SD quality levels. As aperson of skill in the art would recognize, the 4K quality level is thehighest quality of the three quality levels and requires the moststorage space; the HD quality level is the middle quality and requiresless space than 4K but more space than SD; and the SD quality level isthe lowest quality of the three quality levels and requires the leastamount of storage of the three quality levels for the same media asset.While the embodiments described herein refer to 4K, HD, and SD quality,a person of skill in the art would recognize that the systems andmethods described herein apply equally to other quality levels such as8K, 5K, 1080p, 1080i, 720p, 720i, Ultra XGA, Super XGA, XGA, or othersuitable qualities for encoding digitally stored media assets such asvideos, images, and other media assets. The systems and methodsdescribed herein improve and optimize the storage space necessary tostore media assets by intelligently managing the formats and qualitylevels used to store them.

In some embodiments, a media guidance application stores a media assetat a given time. For example, the media guidance application may store amedia asset after recording the media asset from a broadcast. Or themedia guidance application may store a media asset after downloading themedia asset from a remote server. The storage of the media asset may bein response to a user command that initiates the storage of the mediaasset, or the media guidance application may initiate storage of themedia asset based on heuristics and analysis performed on habits ofusers of the media guidance application. For example, a media guidanceapplication may provide a user with an electronic program guide. Duringinteraction with the user, the media guidance application may receive acommand indicating the media guidance application should store anepisode of a show, e.g., “Thomas the Train,” which is being received atthe media guidance application in a format having a high-quality level,e.g., in 4K.

In some embodiments, a media guidance application retrieves a data entrycorresponding to the media asset from a database. In some embodiments,the media guidance application houses a local data store that comprisesthe database. In some embodiments, the database exists on a serverremote from the media guidance application. Further, the database mayexist in temporary storage, e.g., memory, or in long-term storage, e.g.,a file structure on storage such as a hard disk or solid-state disk. Thedata entry comprises information about the media asset. For example, thedata entry may comprise information about the date and time when themedia guidance application stored the media asset. Further, the dataentry may comprise information identifying the media asset such astitle, series name, genre, quality level or levels, date and time whenfirst available, original channel, actors, sport's teams, director,writer, or still other information related to the media asset.

In some embodiments, a media guidance application determines, based onthe data entry, a threshold period of time for storing the media assetin the first format. For example, the media guidance application maydetermine that a copy of a media asset stored in high-quality format,e.g. 4K, should be stored in that format for two weeks. The mediaguidance application may determine the threshold time period based onlyon the quality level of the media asset or on additional parameters. Themedia guidance application may determine the time period based on userpreferences for storing quality levels of a media asset. In someembodiments, the media guidance application may determine the thresholdtime period based on amount of available storage in the storage spaceassociated with the storage of the media asset. In some embodiments, themedia guidance application may determine the threshold time period basedon a combination of metadata associated with the media asset, userpreferences, and/or storage space associated with the storage of themedia asset. For example, the media guidance application may determinethe media asset is a children's program and is stored in a 4K qualityformat. The media guidance application may also determine that the userprefers storing children's programs in high quality for an indefiniteamount of time, as long as at least 50% of storage space is available;but if less than 50% of storage space is available then the user has apreference for storing children's programs in high quality for twoweeks. In some embodiments, the media guidance application determinesthe time period based on a user associated with the storage of the mediaasset. For example, the media guidance application may receiveinteractions from a plurality of users, and some users may be given ahigher priority for storage of media assets than other users. The mediaguidance application may then determine that a first user initiated thestorage of a media asset and determine the time period for storing themedia asset in the first format based on the associated user. The mediaguidance application may then store the determined time period in a dataentry associated with the media asset.

In some embodiments, a media guidance application detects whether thethreshold period of time from when the media guidance application storedthe media asset has passed. In response to detecting that the thresholdperiod of time since the given time has passed, the media guidanceapplication alters the media asset. In some embodiments, the mediaguidance application alters a first portion of the media asset from thefirst format having the first quality level to a second format having asecond quality level. In some embodiments, the media guidanceapplication will alter the stored copy of the media asset from a firstformat to a second format as a whole. In other words, the media guidanceapplication performs the quality reduction on the entire copy of themedia asset that was stored. In some embodiments, the media guidanceapplication will alter a portion of the media asset from a first formatto a second format. For example, the media guidance application maydetermine that a user has watched the first 25% of the media asset andalter the quality level of only the first 25% of the media asset andleave the remaining 75% in the quality level in which the asset wasinitially stored. In some embodiments, the media guidance applicationmay identify non-substantive portions of a media asset, e.g., credits,announcements, sponsorships, and/or advertisements, and transcode thoseportions to lower quality to reduce storage space.

In some embodiments, a media guidance application determines a pluralityof attributes corresponding to the media asset based on informationindicated by the data entry and uses that information to determine aquality level for the media asset. For example, the media guidanceapplication computes an importance of the media asset based on eachattribute of the plurality of attributes. For example, the mediaguidance application may determine that an episode of “Classical Baby”has a low importance because it is a children's program containinganimation, which does not require a high amount of quality to preservefidelity. Furthermore, the media guidance application may consider userpreferences in combination with the plurality of attributes to determinethe importance of a media asset. For example, user preferences mayindicate the media assets associated with specific genres, sports,actions, teams, titles, dates and times, keywords, and/or channelsshould be computed as more important or less important. In someembodiments, the media guidance application may use informationregarding the available storage space associated with the media incombination with other attributes to determine the importance of themedia asset. In some embodiments, the media guidance application mayhave the ability to store portions or entire media assets in a secondarystorage, e.g. on a remote server, for later retrieval, and may computethe importance of the media asset based, in part, on whether portions orthe entire media asset is available at specific quality levels insecondary storage. In some embodiments, the media guidance applicationcorrelates the importance of the media asset with a target qualitylevel, e.g. very important media assets should be held in the highestquality level while low-importance assets are kept in lower qualitylevels.

In some embodiments, a media guidance application may employ a series offlow control algorithms to determine an importance value from themetadata associated with a media asset. The media guidance applicationmay give a weight to a plurality of attributes and employ the weightedvalues in a calculation to arrive at the importance value. In someembodiments, the media guidance application may employ multivariateanalysis on metadata associated with the media asset to determine theimportance value of the media asset. In some embodiments, the mediaguidance application may analyze the content of the media asset todetermine the importance of the media asset. For example, the mediaguidance application may analyze the content of an episode of “ClassicalBaby” and determine that the media content would not benefit from highquality storage and, therefore, the importance value of the media assetshould be lower. This determination may be because the quality of themedia content is such that storage in a high-quality level isinefficient (e.g., perhaps the media asset is an older show that wasoriginally captured in low quality or has artifacts from digitizationthat make high quality storage inefficient). This determination may bebecause the content does not lend itself to high quality storage. Thisdetermination may be based on training a neural network to identify thetarget quality level. For example, the media guidance application maytrack, for one or more users, the quality levels of media assets thatthe users keep. The media guidance application may extract severalpertinent traits of the media assets to train a neural network on thetraits that correspond with quality levels. The media guidanceapplication may then use the trained neural network to determine theimportance of a media asset in line with the trained network.

In some embodiments, a media guidance application then determines theamount of quality by which to reduce the first quality level as thedifference between the first quality level and the target quality level,e.g. the quality reduction is the difference between 4K and HD.

In some embodiments, a media guidance application may calculate animportance value that is used to look up the target quality level from atable that correlates importance values with target quality levels.

In some embodiments, a media guidance application determines an amountof quality by which to reduce the first quality level based, in part, onthe importance of the media asset. For example, the media guidanceapplication may determine that an episode of “Classical Baby” stored in4K is of medium importance. And after two weeks, the media guidanceapplication may determine that the quality of the stored copy should bereduced from 4K to HD.

In another example, the media guidance application may determine that anepisode of “Classical Baby” is of low importance, perhaps due to userpreferences that children's programs are only kept in high quality for ashort duration, and after two weeks the media guidance application maydetermine the quality level of the “Classical Baby” episode should beshould be reduced from 4K to SD.

In some embodiments, a media guidance application transcodes the firstportion of the media asset from the first format to the second format byreducing the first quality level by the determined amount to the secondquality level. In some embodiments, the media guidance applicationperforms the transcoding of the first portion of the media asset itself.In other embodiments, the media guidance application may direct thetranscoding of the first portion by, for example, sending the firstportion of the media asset to a remote server for transcoding and thenstoring the transcoded asset as received from the remote server.

As described above, the media guidance application may determine toalter the quality level of a portion of a media asset. In someembodiments, the media guidance application detects a time point in themedia asset where playback of the media asset was suspended. Forexample, the media guidance application may receive a command to suspendplayback of a media asset (e.g., a pause, an exit, a stop command, or achange channel command). The media guidance application may keep trackof the time point when it received a command to suspend playback. Insome embodiments, the media guidance application may make a simpledetermination to transcode the portion of the media asset from a startpoint of the media asset until the time point at which playback wassuspending. In some embodiments, the media guidance application mayemploy additional intelligence to determine the portion of the mediaasset to alter. For example, the media guidance application maydetermine whether playback was suspended close in time to the end of themedia asset and, if close enough, determine that the portion of themedia asset to transcode should be from the beginning to the end of themedia asset even though playback was suspended before the end of themedia asset. The media guidance application may determine whether thetime point at which playback was suspended occurs within a thresholdamount of time from the endpoint of the media asset. For example, themedia guidance application may employ a 1-minute threshold, and ifplayback of the media asset was suspended within 1 minute of the end ofthe media asset then the media guidance application may consider theportion of the media asset to be from the beginning to the end. When themedia guidance application determines that the time point occurs withina threshold amount of time from the endpoint of the media asset, themedia guidance application may identify the first portion of the mediaasset as a portion of the media asset from a start point of the mediaasset to a time point in the media asset after where playback of themedia asset was suspended (e.g., from a start point of the media assetuntil the end of the media asset). When the media guidance applicationdetermines that the time point occurs outside of the threshold amount oftime from the endpoint of the media asset (e.g., the suspension occurredmore than 1 minute from the end of the media asset), the media guidanceapplication identifies the first portion of the media asset as a portionof the media asset from a start point of the media asset to the timepoint in the media asset where playback of the media asset wassuspended.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may be hard codedwith a threshold. In some embodiments, the media guidance applicationmay store a modifiable threshold to indicate how close in time thesuspension must be to the end of the media asset to consider the portionof the media asset to be the whole media asset. The media guidanceapplication may also retrieve the threshold from an external source;e.g., a user profile stored on a remote server may contain thethreshold. Further, the media guidance application may allow a user toconfigure the threshold, e.g., the media guidance application mayprovide a user interface for setting the threshold.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application further determinesthe amount of quality by which to reduce the first quality level basedon the amount of storage available to the media guidance application.The media guidance application determines a storage threshold associatedwith storage space required to store the first portion of the mediaasset. For example, the media guidance application may determine thatonly 20% of storage space is available and that the storage associatedwith the media asset needs to be reduced by 25%. In another example, themedia guidance application may determine that the media asset currentlyrequires 10 megabytes of storage for every 1 second of content and thatthe storage requirement needs to be reduced to 8 megabytes of storagefor every 1 second of content. The media guidance application thendetermines a storage threshold quality level associated with the firstportion of the media asset. The media guidance application determinesstorage threshold quality level as a quality level at which storing thefirst portion of the media asset will not require more storage spacethan the storage threshold. The media guidance application adjusts thetarget quality level so the target quality level does not exceed thestorage threshold quality level.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may be hard codedwith a storage threshold. In some embodiments, the media guidanceapplication may store a modifiable storage threshold to indicate howmuch of the storage space should be used to store a media asset or aplurality of media assets. The media guidance application may alsoretrieve the storage threshold from an external source; e.g., a userprofile stored on a remote server may contain the storage threshold.Further, the media guidance application may allow a user to configurethe storage threshold, e.g., the media guidance application may providea user interface for setting the storage threshold.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application further determinesthe amount of quality by which to reduce the first quality level basedon a category of the media asset. The media guidance application mayanalyze a plurality of attributes to determine a media asset category.In some embodiments, the category may be based on a single attribute ofthe plurality of attributes while in some embodiments the category isdetermined from several attributes. The media guidance applicationcorrelates the media asset category with a category quality level andadjusts the target quality level based on the category quality level.For example, the media guidance application may determine that a mediaasset is an action movie rated “R” and that media assets in thatcategory have a category quality level of 4K. It may be that the targetquality level, based on other factors, was HD, and the media guidanceapplication may adjust the target quality to 4K based on the categoryquality level. Going the other direction, the media guidance applicationmay determine that a media asset is a children's program and that mediaassets in that category have a category quality level of SD. It may bethat the target quality level, based on other factors, was HD, and themedia guidance application may adjust the target quality to SD based onthe category quality level.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may receive acommand that indicates the media guidance application should revert themedia asset to the highest possible quality, e.g. from the second lowestquality format to the first highest quality format. For example, themedia guidance application may have a media asset stored in SD andreceive a command that indicates the media guidance application shouldstore the media asset in 4K. Or the media guidance application mayreceive an explicit command from the user to revert the media asset tothe highest possible quality. Still further, the media guidanceapplication may analyze the amount of available storage space anddetermine additional storage space is available to allow storage ofmedia assets in a quality level higher than the current level. In thisscenario, the media guidance application may issue its own command torevert one or more media assets to higher quality.

In response to receiving the command, the media guidance applicationdetermines an availability of a replacement media asset in a formathaving the first quality level. For example, the media guidanceapplication may determine that a first portion of the media asset isstored in SD and that an upcoming broadcast of the media asset will bein 4K. Therefore, the media guidance application would be able toreplace the first portion of the media asset by recording the firstportion from the upcoming broadcast. The media guidance application maydetermine that the first portion of the media asset is available forretrieval from a remote server. In embodiments in which the mediaguidance application is able to store portions of media assets insecondary storage, the media guidance application may determine that thefirst portion is available in secondary storage. One of skill in the artwould recognize that the replacement asset does not have to be identicalto the original media asset. For example, if the original media assetwas recorded from broadcast television and the replacement asset is froman upcoming broadcast, it is unlikely that the commercials will be thesame, and the media asset may differ in some content. But thereplacement media asset will contain content similar to the media asset.Further, if the replacement media asset is of lower quality than thecurrently stored, transcoded media asset, then there is little reason toretrieve the replacement media asset. Therefore, typically, thereplacement media asset will be in a format having a quality level thatexceeds the first quality level. The media guidance application obtainsthe replacement asset based on the determined availability, stores thereplacement asset, and removes the first portion of the media asset. Insome embodiments, the media guidance will flag the media asset after thehigher quality version is retrieved to prevent future qualitydowngrades.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application manages storage ofmedia assets in second storage. For example, prior to transcoding aportion of a media asset from a first format to a second format, themedia guidance application may determine whether or not to store theportion of the media asset in secondary storage. This may allow themedia guidance application to revert the portion back to the firstformat at later time as described above. The media guidance applicationdetermines whether to store, in the secondary storage, the first portionof the media asset in the first format. If the media guidanceapplication determines that the first portion of the media asset shouldbe stored in the secondary storage, then the media guidance applicationstores a first portion of the media asset in the first format in thesecondary storage.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application determines whether asecondary storage contains the first portion of the media asset in thefirst format. For example, the media guidance application may identifythe first 25% of a stored media asset should be transcoded from 4K toHD. The media guidance application then checks whether the secondarystorage contains the first 25% of the stored media asset in 4K and mayreceive an indication of whether or not that portion of the media assetis in secondary storage and use that indication to determine, in part,whether to store the first portion in secondary storage. For example,the media guidance application may determine that all of the media assetis stored in 4K and therefore, the first portion, comprising the first25% of the media asset, is in the secondary storage. In another example,the media guidance application may be checking whether the secondarystorage contains a first portion of the media asset in a lower qualitylevel, such as SD quality. The media guidance application may determinethat the first portion exists in the secondary storage in a higherquality level, such as 4K. Therefore, the media guidance application maydetermine that storage of the first portion in a lower quality level,e.g., SD quality, is redundant to the higher quality level storage.Specifically, the media guidance application may determine whethersecondary storage contains a third portion of the media asset. Inresponse to determining that secondary storage contains the thirdportion of the media asset, the media guidance application determineswhether a quality level of the third portion of the media asset fallsbelow the first quality level and determines whether the third portionof the media asset comprises similar media content as the first portionof the media asset. For example, if the copy of the media asset fromsecondary storage and the first portion of the media asset are from twobroadcasts, the assets may contain different advertisements butotherwise contain similar content for the main program. If the mediaguidance application determine that the third portion comprises similarmedia content as the first portion of the media asset and that thequality level of the third portion of the media asset does not fallbelow the first quality level (e.g. the content is similar and thesecondary storage does not contain a lesser quality copy), the mediaguidance application may indicate not to store the first portion of themedia asset in the first quality level because it is redundant to whatis already stored in the secondary storage.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application checks whether themedia asset is important enough to store in secondary storage. Thisimportance can be determined in a manner similar to that described withrespect to determining quality level based on importance. For example,the media guidance application may compare the determined importance toa secondary storage importance threshold and use that indication todetermine, in part, whether to store the first portion in secondarystorage.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application managing storage ofthe media asset in the secondary storage further comprises removinglower quality copies of portions of the media asset from the secondarystorage. The media guidance application may identify, in the secondarystorage, a third portion of the media asset comprising media contentincluded within the first portion of the media asset. The media guidanceapplication may determine whether a quality level of the third portionof the media asset falls below the first quality level. For example, themedia guidance application may determine that the secondary storagecontains an SD-quality copy of an episode of “Classical Baby” that iscurrently in 4K. In response to determining that the quality level ofthe third portion of the media asset falls below the first qualitylevel, the media guidance application removes the third portion of themedia asset from secondary storage.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may transcode themedia asset when storing the media asset to ensure that a media deviceassociated with the storage of the media asset is capable of decodingand playing back the stored media asset. For example, the media guidanceapplication determines a playback capability of a device associated withthe media asset. The media guidance application determines a currentformat of the media asset and determines a playback capabilityrequirement associated with decoding the media asset in the currentformat. The media guidance application determines whether the playbackcapability requirement for decoding and playing back the media asset inthe first format exceeds the determined playback capability of the mediadevice. If the playback capability requirement exceeds the mediadevice's playback capability, the media guidance application transcodesthe media asset from its current format to a format that does notrequire playback capability that exceeds the media device's determinedplayback capability. For example, a media device associated with a mediaasset may not be capable of outputting 4K video but may be capable ofoutputting HD video. If the media guidance application receives a 4Kvideo associated with that media device, the media guidance applicationmay transcode the media asset from 4K to HD. In another example, a mediadevice may not have enough processing power, speed, memory, or storageto decode 4K video in a manner that allows unbuffered playback of thedecoded video. Therefore, the media guidance application may transcodethe media asset to a lower quality, e.g. HD or SD video, to ensure themedia device has the processing capability to allow for unbufferedplayback of the decoded media asset.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other objects and advantages of the disclosure will beapparent upon consideration of the following detailed description, takenin conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like referencecharacters refer to like parts throughout, and in which:

FIG. 1 depicts an illustrative embodiment of an informational displaythat may be used to provide information to a user regarding the statusof media assets stored, in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 2 depicts an illustrative embodiment of an informational displaythat may be used to provide options to a user regarding the status of amedia asset stored, in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 3 depicts a visualization of managing storage of media assets inprimary storage and secondary storage in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosures;

FIG. 4 shows an illustrative embodiment of a display screen that may beused to provide media guidance application listings and other mediaguidance information, in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 5 shows another illustrative embodiment of a display screen thatmay be used to provide media guidance application listings, inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an illustrative user equipment (UE) device,in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of an illustrative media system, in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 8 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for managing thequality levels and formats used to store media assets, in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 9 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for altering theformat of a media asset, in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 10 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for identifying aportion of a media asset to be altered, in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 11 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for determiningthe quality level for storing a media asset, in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 12 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for determiningthe quality level for storing a media asset, in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 13 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for reverting analtered media asset to a higher quality format, in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 14 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for storing aportion of a media asset in a first format in secondary storage, inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 15 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for managingstorage of media assets in secondary storage, in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 16 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for managingstorage of media assets in secondary storage, in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 17 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for managing thequality levels and formats used to store media assets, in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure; and

FIG. 18 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for determining atime period to store a media asset before managing the quality levelsand formats used to store the media asset, in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 depicts an illustrative embodiment of an informational displaythat may be used to provide information to a user regarding the statusof media assets stored, in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure. FIG. 1 depicts media guidance application 100, which may beimplemented on user equipment by control circuitry. The functionality ofuser equipment, control circuitry, and the media guidance application isdescribed in further detail with respect to FIGS. 4-7.

FIG. 1 depicts a timeline 101 on the bottom of the figure with fourexemplary time points marked A, B, C, and D for easy understanding ofembodiments of the invention. As described above, a media guidanceapplication 100 may manage storage space occupied by a media asset byadjusting the quality levels of the media asset over time. In someembodiments, the media guidance application may be executed by controlcircuitry, such as control circuitry 604. Details related to the mediaguidance application and control circuitry will be further describedbelow with respect to FIGS. 4-7.

At time point A, dated Sep. 28, 2017, for the purpose of illustration,FIG. 1 illustrates a media guidance application 100, which lists mediaassets stored in connection with a media guidance application 100. Themedia guidance application 100 lists 4 media assets which arerepresentative of 4 episodes of different television shows titled: “Mr.Roger's Neighborhood,” “Sesame Street,” “Curious George,” and “ClassicalBaby”. The media guidance application 100 is managing the storage ofthese media assets in accordance with the techniques described herein.In the media guidance application 100, a date associated with thestorage of each media asset is depicted, in Month/Date format, on thefar right of media guidance application 100. In this example, September1st is associated with “Mr. Roger's Neighborhood” and “Sesame Street,”September 9th is associated with “Curious George,” and September 23rd isassociated with “Classical Baby”. Furthermore, quality levels associatedwith each media asset are depicted to the right of the title in a squarebox with the annotations 4K, HD, and SD. For example, element 125Aindicates that “Classical Baby” is stored in 4K quality. Media guidanceapplication 100 also contains an options element 105 that providesaccess to an informational display used to provide options associatedwith a media asset as described with further reference to FIG. 2. Attime point A in FIG. 1, the media guidance application 100 shows thatthe media guidance application 100 is storing an episode of “Mr. Roger'sNeighborhood” from September 1 in SD quality, an episode of ““SesameStreet”” from September 1 in 4K quality, an episode of Curious Georgefrom September 9 in HD quality and an episode of “Classical Baby” fromSeptember 23 in 4K quality.

Between time point A and time point B, the media guidance application100 receives a command indicating the media guidance application 100should store an episode of another show, e.g., Thomas the Train, whichis being received at the media guidance application 100 in a formathaving a high-quality level, e.g. in 4K. Media guidance application 100includes a listing for Thomas the Train below “Classical Baby”. TheThomas the Train is annotated by a “New” label 120B indicating thelisting was newly stored and a 4K label 115B indicating the media assetis stored in 4K quality. The date label 110 indicate that Thomas theTrain was stored on October 1st.

The media guidance application 100 may periodically check whether itshould manage quality levels of media assets. For example, the mediaguidance application 100 may perform daily maintenance and during thoseoperations may analyze whether it should alter the quality level of anymedia assets it has stored. During the management of quality level, themedia guidance application 100 retrieves a data entry corresponding tothe media asset from a database. For example, when managing the qualityof “Classical Baby”, the media guidance application 100 retrieves a dataentry associated with the episode of “Classical Baby”. The data entrycomprises information about the media asset. Continuing the “ClassicalBaby” example, the data entry may indicate the title: “Classical Baby”,original television channel: HBO, storage date/time: September 23,format/quality: 4K, genre: Children's Program, sub-genre: the Arts,actors: Susan Sarandon and Langston Hughes, producer: Amy Schatz,writer: Amy Schatz, etc.

The media guidance application 100 may determine, based on the dataentry, a threshold period of time for storing the media asset in thefirst format. Continuing the “Classical Baby” example, the mediaguidance application 100 may determine that a copy of a media assetstored in high-quality format, e.g. 4K, should be stored in that formatfor three weeks. The media guidance application 100 may determine thethreshold time period based only on the quality level of the media assetor on additional parameters. The media guidance application 100 maydetermine the time period based on user preferences for storing qualitylevels of a media asset. In some embodiments, the media guidanceapplication 100 may determine the threshold time period based on amountof available storage in the storage space associated with the storage ofthe media asset. In some embodiments, the media guidance application 100may determine the threshold time period based on a combination ofmetadata associated with the media asset, user preferences, and/orstorage space associated with the storage of the media asset. Forexample, the media guidance application 100 may determine the mediaasset is a children's program and is stored in a 4K quality format. Themedia guidance application 100 may also determine that the user prefersstoring children's programs in high quality for an indefinite amount oftime, as long as at least 50% of storage space is available; but if lessthan 50% of storage space is available, then the user has a preferencefor storing children's programs in high quality for three weeks. In someembodiments, the media guidance application 100 determines the timeperiod based on a user associated with the storage of the media asset.For example, the media guidance application 100 may receive interactionsfrom a plurality of users and some users may be given a higher priorityfor storage of media assets than other users. The media guidanceapplication 100 may then determine that a first user initiated thestorage of a media asset and determine the time period for storing themedia asset in the first format based on the associated user. The mediaguidance application 100 may then store the determined time period in adata entry associated with the media asset.

As an example, on the morning of October 15, the media guidanceapplication 100 may manage the quality levels of stored media assets.During the management of quality levels, the media guidance application100 detects whether the threshold period of time from when the mediaguidance application 100 stored the media asset has passed. In the“Classical Baby” example, the media guidance application 100 detectsthat the three-week threshold has passed since September 23rd. Inresponse to detecting that the threshold period of time since the giventime has passed, the media guidance application 100 alters the mediaasset. In some embodiments, the media guidance application 100 alters afirst portion of the media asset from the first format having the firstquality level to a second format having a second quality level. In someembodiments, the media guidance application 100 will alter the storedcopy of the media asset from a first format to a second format as awhole. In other words, the media guidance application 100 performs thequality reduction on the entire copy of the media asset that was stored.In some embodiments, the media guidance application 100 will alter aportion of the media asset from a first format to a second format. Forexample, the media guidance application 100 may determine that a userhas watched the first 25% of the media asset and alter the quality levelof only the first 25% of the media and leave the remaining 75% in thequality level that was initially stored. Continuing with the “ClassicalBaby” example, the media guidance application 100 may determine that thefirst 10 minutes of “Classical Baby” was already watched by the user. Inaccordance with the processes described herein, the media guidanceapplication 100 may determine to alter the format of the first 10minutes of “Classical Baby” from 4K quality to HD quality.

The media guidance application 100 may determine a plurality ofattributes corresponding to the media asset based on informationindicated by the data entry and use that information to determinequality level for the media asset. For example, the media guidanceapplication 100 may compute an importance of the media asset based oneach attribute of the plurality of attributes. For example, the mediaguidance application 100 may determine that an episode of “ClassicalBaby” has a low importance because it is a children's program containinganimation which does not require a high amount of quality to preservefidelity. In some embodiments, the media guidance application 100 mayconsider user preferences in combination with the plurality ofattributes to determine the importance of a media asset. For example,user preferences may indicate the media assets associated with specificgenres, sports, actions, teams, titles, dates and times, keywords,and/or channels should be computed as more important or less important.In some embodiments, the media guidance application 100 may useinformation regarding the available storage space associated with themedia in combination with other attributes to determine the importanceof the media asset. In some embodiments, the media guidance application100 may have the ability to store portions or entire media assets in asecondary storage, e.g. on a remote server, for later retrieval and maycompute the importance of the media asset based, in part, on whetherportions or the entire media asset is available at specific qualitylevels in secondary storage. In some embodiments, the media guidanceapplication 100 correlates the importance of the media asset with atarget quality level, e.g. very important media assets should be held inthe highest quality level while low-importance assets are kept in lowerquality levels.

The media guidance application 100 may employ a series of flow controlalgorithms to determine an importance value from the metadata associatedwith a media asset. The media guidance application 100 may give a weightto a plurality of attributes and employ the weighted values in acalculation to arrive at the importance value. In some embodiments, themedia guidance application 100 may employ multivariate analysis onmetadata associated with the media asset to determine the importancevalue of the media asset. In some embodiments, the media guidanceapplication 100 may analyze the content of the media asset to determinethe importance of the media asset. For example, the media guidanceapplication 100 may analyze the content of an episode of “ClassicalBaby” and determine that the media content would not benefit from highquality storage and, therefore, the importance of the media asset shouldbe lower. This determination may be because the quality of the mediacontent is such that storage in a high-quality level is inefficient(e.g., perhaps the media asset is an older show that was originallycaptured in low quality or has artifacts from digitization that makehigh quality storage inefficient). This determination may be because thecontent does not lend itself to high quality storage. This determinationmay be based on training a neural network to identify the target qualitylevel. For example, the media guidance application 100 may track, forone or more users, the quality levels of media assets that the userskeep. The media guidance application 100 may extract several pertinenttraits of the media assets to train a neural network on the traits thatcorrespond with quality levels. The media guidance application 100 maythen use the trained neural network to determine the importance of amedia asset in line with the trained network.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application 100 computes theimportance of the media asset according to the following technique. Themedia guidance application 100 evaluates the attributes of the mediaasset to determine weighted attribute scores. The media guidanceapplication 100 combines the weighted attribute scores to produce anormalized importance score and correlates the normalized importancescore with a recommended target quality value. For example, the mediaguidance application 100 may consider the following attributes incomputing a normalized importance score: genre, run-length, currentquality level, original channel, title, actors, director, writer, andoriginal date/time. The media guidance application 100 may hold animportance table of attribute types, attributes, and weighted scores,such as the following exemplary importance table.

TABLE 1 Exemplary Importance Table Type Attribute Weighted Score GenreComedy .1 Kids .5 Action .7 Nature .9 Run-Length ≤30 minutes .9 >30 min.& ≤60 min. .5 >60 min. 0 Current 4K .1 Quality Level HD .5 SD .9Original HBO .9 Channel ESPN .1 Nickelodeon −.2 Title Hockey .9 KeywordsAnimated −.1

In this example, the importance score of a media asset may be calculatedfrom the weighted scores. In some embodiments, the importance score maybe the average of the weighted scores. Taking the example of “ClassicalBaby”, the media guidance application 100 determines that the mediaasset has the following attributes: Kids genre, 35 minutes runtime, 4Kquality level, aired on HBO, and animated. Using the values from theexemplary importance table, the media guidance application 100calculates an importance value as (0.5+0.5+0.1+0.9+−0.1)/5=0.38.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application 100 correlates theimportance score of the media asset with a target quality level. Forexample, the media guidance application 100 may correlate media assetsaccording to the exemplary importance score quality level table.

TABLE 2 Exemplary Importance Score Quality Level Table Importance ScoreTarget Quality Level ≤.33 SD >.33 & ≤.66 HD >.66 4KIn the “Classical Baby” example where the media asset has an importancescore of 0.38, the media guidance application 100 determines the targetquality level to be HD quality.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application 100 obtains a userprofile that contains preference information and uses the user'spreference to determine the importance of a media asset. For example,the user's profile may indicate that the user has a preference forchildren's programs, and therefore, the media guidance application maygive media assets that are children's programs a higher importance basedon those preferences and maintain media assets associated with thosepreferences in higher quality levels.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application 100 may compare theimportance scores of a plurality of media assets to make a relativeimportance determination. For example, the media guidance application100 may compare importance scores from media assets having the samecurrent quality level to determine which of those assets should have itsquality downgraded.

The media guidance application may obtain the exemplary tables usingseveral mechanisms. In some embodiments, the media guidance applicationmay be hard coded with the tables. In some embodiments, the mediaguidance application may store modifiable tables. The media guidanceapplication may also retrieve the tables from an external source; e.g.,a user profile stored on a remote server may contain the tables.Further, the media guidance application may allow a user to configurethe tables, e.g., the media guidance application may provide a userinterface for setting up the tables.

After the media guidance application 100 determines a target qualitylevel for a given media asset, the media guidance application 100 maydetermine the amount of quality by which to reduce the first qualitylevel as the difference between the first quality level and the targetquality level. Continuing the “Classical Baby” example, the qualityreduction is the difference between 4K (the current quality level of themedia asset) and HD (the target quality level). The media guidanceapplication 100 uses the amount of quality by which to reduce the firstquality level to transcode the media asset from a first format to asecond format. In some embodiments, the media guidance application 100performs the transcoding of the first portion of the media asset itself.In some embodiments, the media guidance application 100 may direct thetranscoding of the first portion by, for example, sending the firstportion of the media asset to a remote server for transcoding and thenstoring the transcoded asset as received from the remote server.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application 100 may determine toalter the quality level of a portion of a media asset. For example, themedia guidance application 100 may detect a time point in the mediaasset where playback of the media asset was suspended. Continuing withthe “Classical Baby” example, the media guidance application 100 maydetermine that the first 10 minutes of “Classical Baby” were alreadywatched by the user. The media guidance application 100 keeps track ofthe 10-minute mark from “Classical Baby” to determine a portion of themedia asset to transcode. In this example, the media guidanceapplication 100 identifies the first 10 minutes of “Classical Baby” tobe transcoded from 4K to HD and identifies the remaining portion of“Classical Baby” to stay in 4K.

Continuing with reference to FIG. 1, between time point B and time pointC, the media guidance application 100 has managed the quality levels ofthe media assets according to the embodiments described herein. Themedia guidance application 100 may show the result of the management ofquality levels on the media asset at time point C, dated Oct. 15, 2017.At time point C, the media guidance application 100 may show that themedia guidance application 100 is storing the episode of “Mr. Roger'sNeighborhood” from September 1 in SD quality, the episode of “SesameStreet” from September 1 in SD quality, the episode of Curious Georgefrom September 9 in SD quality, the episode of “Classical Baby” fromSeptember 23 in a mixed quality of “4K+HD” (which indicates that oneportion of the episode is in 4K quality and one portion of the episodeis in HD quality), and the Thomas the Train episode from October 1 in HDquality. In some embodiments, the management of quality levels betweentime point B and time point C occurs as described here.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application 100 may receive acommand that indicates the media guidance application 100 should revertthe media asset to the highest possible quality, e.g. from the secondlowest quality format to the first highest quality format. For example,the media guidance application 100 may have stored “Classical Baby” in amixed “4K+HD” quality levels at time point C in FIG. 1. For example,between time point C and time point D, the media guidance application100 may receive a command that indicates the media guidance application100 should store a media asset in higher quality.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application 100 may receive aset of user interactions invoking the options user element 105 withrespect to the “Classical Baby” media asset and the options user element105 brings up user interface elements from FIG. 2.

FIG. 2 depicts an illustrative embodiment of an informational displaythat may be used to provide options to a user regarding the status of amedia asset stored in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure. FIG. 2 depicts media guidance application 200 which shows amenu of stored media assets associated with the media guidanceapplication 100. Once the options menu is invoked, the media guidanceapplication 100 presents a series of options associated with theselected media. In FIG. 2, the “Classical Baby” media asset is selectedand four options are presented in media guidance application 200: Play,Save Recording in 4K 205, Prevent Future Quality Downgrades 210, andDelete Recording.

In response to receiving a command associated with the option to SaveRecording in 4K 205, the media guidance application 100 reverts themedia asset to the 4K quality level. The media guidance application 100determines whether the first 10 minutes of the “Classical Baby” mediaasset is available in 4K quality level. For example, the media guidanceapplication 100 may determine that an upcoming broadcast of “ClassicalBaby” is in 4K and that the first ten minutes of the show will beavailable for storage to replace the HD portion of the stored mediaasset. Therefore, the media guidance application 100 would be able toreplace the first portion of “Classical Baby” by recording the firstportion from the upcoming broadcast. The media guidance application 100may also determine that the first 10 minutes of the “Classical Baby”media asset is available in 4K quality for retrieval from a remoteserver and that the HD portion of the stored media asset can be replacedwith the first portion for a remote server. In some embodiments, inwhich the media guidance application 100 is able to store portions ofmedia assets in secondary storage, the media guidance application 100may determine that the first 10 minutes of “Classical Baby” is availablein secondary storage. One of skill in the art would recognize that thereplacement asset does not have to be identical to the original mediaasset. For example, if “Classical Baby” was recorded from a broadcastthat contained advertisement and the replacement asset is from anupcoming broadcast with advertisement, it is unlikely that thecommercials will be the same. Therefore, the upcoming version of the“Classical Baby” media asset may differ from the stored version in somecontent such as advertisements. But the replacement media asset willcontain content similar to the stored media asset in that the content ofthe show will be substantially identical in content if not in quality.Further, if the replacement media asset is of lower quality than thecurrently stored, transcoded media asset, then there is little reason toretrieve the replacement media asset. Therefore, typically thereplacement media asset will identify as being in a format having aquality level that exceeds the first quality level. The media guidanceapplication 100 obtains the replacement asset based on the determinedavailability, stores the replacement asset, and removes the firstportion of the media asset.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application 100 may be capableof receiving a user interaction invoking an option to Prevent FutureQuality Downgrades 210. In response to interactions invoking thisoption, the media guidance application 100 may store an attribute inassociation with “Classical Baby” that indicates that the media guidanceapplication 100 should not alter the format of the stored media asset ina way that degrades the quality level of the media asset in the future.During management of the storage of media assets, the media guidanceapplication 100 may use this information when making a determination ofwhether or not to alter the format of the media asset in a manner thatimpacts the quality of stored media asset.

Returning to FIG. 1, time point D shows media guidance application 100dated on Oct. 29, 2017. Time point D is an example of a time point thatoccurs after the media guidance application 100 may receive a command torevert a media asset back to a high-quality level. Using the example of“Classical Baby” and FIG. 2, the media guidance application 100 hasreverted “Classical Baby” from being stored in multiple qualities, e.g.,4K+HD quality levels, to being stored in its original high-quality levelformat, 4K, as annotated by label 4K 125D. The media guidanceapplication 100 has also further managed the quality levels of the mediaassets shown between time point C and time point D. As shown in mediaguidance application 100, the quality level of the Thomas the Trainmedia asset has been degraded from HD at time point C to SD at timepoint D in accordance with the techniques described above. At time pointD, the media guidance application 100 may show that the media guidanceapplication 100 is storing the episode of “Mr. Roger's Neighborhood”from September 1 in SD quality, the episode of “Sesame Street” fromSeptember 1 in SD quality, the episode of Curious George from September9 in SD quality, the episode of “Classical Baby” from September 23 in 4Kquality, and the Thomas the Train episode from October 1 in HD quality.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application 100 manages storageof media assets in second storage. For example, prior to transcoding aportion of a media asset from a first format to a second format, themedia guidance application 100 may determine whether or not to store theportion of the media asset in secondary storage. This may allow themedia guidance application 100 to revert the portion back to the firstformat at a later time as described above. The media guidanceapplication 100 determines whether to store, in the secondary storage,the first portion of the media asset in the first format. If the mediaguidance application 100 determines that the first portion of the mediaasset should be stored in the secondary storage, then the media guidanceapplication 100 stores a first portion of the media asset in the firstformat in a secondary storage.

FIG. 3 depicts visualizations of managing storage of media assets inprimary storage and secondary storage in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosures.

The top portion of FIG. 3 illustrates a system 300A for managing storageof media assets by copying portions of media assets from a primarystorage 310 associated with a media device 305 to a secondary storage315 associated with the media device 305. For example, prior totranscoding a portion of a media asset from a first format to a secondformat, e.g., before transcoding a portion of “Classical Baby” from 4Kto HD, the media guidance application 100 may determine whether or notto store the portion of the media asset 320 in secondary storage 315.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application 100 determineswhether secondary storage 315 contains the first portion of the mediaasset in the first format 320. For example, prior to transcoding thefirst 10 minutes of “Classical Baby” from 4K to HD, the media guidanceapplication 100 may check whether the secondary storage 315 contains thefirst 10 minutes of “Classical Baby” in 4K. The media guidanceapplication 100 receives an indication of whether or not the first 10minutes of “Classical Baby” 320 is in secondary storage 315 and use thatindication to determine, in part, whether to store the first 10 minutesof “Classical Baby” 320 in secondary storage 315 in 4K quality levels.If the media guidance application 100 determines that the first 10minutes of “Classical Baby” 320 is stored in the secondary storage 315in a 4K quality level (or in a higher quality level) then storage of theportion of the media asset is redundant. Specifically, the mediaguidance application 100 may determining whether secondary storage 315contains a third portion of the media asset 320. In response todetermining that secondary storage 320 contains the third portion of themedia asset 320, the media guidance application 100 determines whether aquality level of the third portion of the media asset falls below thefirst quality level, e.g. 4K, and determines whether the third portionof the media asset comprises similar media content as the first portionof the media asset, e.g., as the first 10 minutes of the media asset. Ifthe media guidance application 100 determines that third portioncomprises similar media content as the first portion of the media assetand that the quality level of the third portion of the media asset doesnot fall below the first quality level (e.g. the content is similar andthe secondary storage does not contain a lesser quality copy), the mediaguidance application 100 may indicate not to store the first portion ofthe media asset 320 in the first quality level because it is redundantto what is already stored in the secondary storage 315.

The bottom portion of FIG. 3 illustrates a system 300B for managingstorage of media assets by copying portions of media assets from aprimary storage 335 associated with a media device 330 to a secondarystorage 345 associated with the media device 330. System 300B managesstorage of portions of media assets in secondary storage 315 using thetechniques described herein but with the secondary storage 345 coupledto the media device 330 across a communications network 340. Forexample, the secondary storage 345 may be housed in a remote server thatis coupled to a media device 330 via an Internet connection.

As noted above, the media guidance application described herein providesuser interface elements that work in conjunction with management ofstorage of media assets including management of the quality levels usedto store those media assets. Consequently, many users desire a form ofmedia guidance through an interface that allows users to efficientlynavigate content selections and easily identify content that they maydesire interaction. An application that provides such guidance isreferred to herein as an interactive media guidance application or,sometimes, a media guidance application or a guidance application.

Interactive media guidance applications may take various forms dependingon the content for which they provide guidance. One typical type ofmedia guidance application is an interactive television program guide.Interactive television program guides (sometimes referred to aselectronic program guides) are well-known guidance applications that,among other things, allow users to navigate among and locate many typesof content or media assets. Interactive media guidance applications maygenerate graphical user interface screens that enable a user to navigateamong, locate and select content. As referred to herein, the terms“media asset” and “content” should be understood to mean anelectronically consumable user asset, such as television programming, aswell as pay-per-view programs, on-demand programs (as in video-on-demand(VOD) systems), Internet content (e.g., streaming content, downloadablecontent, Webcasts, etc.), video clips, audio, content information,pictures, rotating images, documents, playlists, websites, articles,books, electronic books, blogs, chat sessions, social media,applications, games, and/or any other media or multimedia and/orcombination of the same. Guidance applications also allow users tonavigate among and locate content. As referred to herein, the term“multimedia” should be understood to mean content that utilizes at leasttwo different content forms described above, for example, text, audio,images, video, or interactivity content forms. Content may be recorded,played, displayed or accessed by user equipment devices, but can also bepart of a live performance.

The media guidance application and/or any instructions for performingany of the embodiments discussed herein may be encoded on computerreadable media. Computer readable media includes any media capable ofstoring data. The computer readable media may be transitory, including,but not limited to, propagating electrical or electromagnetic signals,or may be non-transitory including, but not limited to, volatile andnon-volatile computer memory or storage devices such as a hard disk,floppy disk, USB drive, DVD, CD, media cards, register memory, processorcaches, Random Access Memory (“RAM”), etc.

With the advent of the Internet, mobile computing, and high-speedwireless networks, users are accessing media on user equipment deviceson which they traditionally did not. As referred to herein, the phrase“user equipment device,” “user equipment,” “user device,” “electronicdevice,” “electronic equipment,” “media equipment device,” or “mediadevice” should be understood to mean any device for accessing thecontent described above, such as a television, a Smart TV, a set-topbox, an integrated receiver decoder (IRD) for handling satellitetelevision, a digital storage device, a digital media receiver (DMR), adigital media adapter (DMA), a streaming media device, a DVD player, aDVD recorder, a connected DVD, a local media server, a BLU-RAY player, aBLU-RAY recorder, a personal computer (PC), a laptop computer, a tabletcomputer, a WebTV box, a personal computer television (PC/TV), a PCmedia server, a PC media center, a hand-held computer, a stationarytelephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile telephone, aportable video player, a portable music player, a portable gamingmachine, a smart phone, or any other television equipment, computingequipment, or wireless device, and/or combination of the same. In someembodiments, the user equipment device may have a front facing screenand a rear facing screen, multiple front screens, or multiple angledscreens. In some embodiments, the user equipment device may have a frontfacing camera and/or a rear facing camera. On these user equipmentdevices, users may be able to navigate among and locate the same contentavailable through a television. Consequently, media guidance may beavailable on these devices, as well. The guidance provided may be forcontent available only through a television, for content available onlythrough one or more of other types of user equipment devices, or forcontent available both through a television and one or more of the othertypes of user equipment devices. The media guidance applications may beprovided as on-line applications (i.e., provided on a web-site), or asstand-alone applications or clients on user equipment devices. Variousdevices and platforms that may implement media guidance applications aredescribed in more detail below.

One of the functions of the media guidance application is to providemedia guidance data to users. As referred to herein, the phrase “mediaguidance data” or “guidance data” should be understood to mean any datarelated to content or data used in operating the guidance application.For example, the guidance data may include program information, guidanceapplication settings, user preferences, user profile information, medialistings, media-related information (e.g., broadcast times, broadcastchannels, titles, descriptions, ratings information (e.g., parentalcontrol ratings, critic's ratings, etc.), genre or category information,actor information, logo data for broadcasters' or providers' logos,etc.), media format (e.g., standard definition, high definition, 3D,etc.), on-demand information, blogs, websites, and any other type ofguidance data that is helpful for a user to navigate among and locatedesired content selections.

FIGS. 4-5 show illustrative display screens that may be used to providemedia guidance data. The display screens shown in FIGS. 4-5 may beimplemented on any suitable user equipment device or platform. While thedisplays of FIGS. 4-5 are illustrated as full screen displays, they mayalso be fully or partially overlaid over content being displayed. A usermay indicate a desire to access content information by selecting aselectable option provided in a display screen (e.g., a menu option, alistings option, an icon, a hyperlink, etc.) or pressing a dedicatedbutton (e.g., a GUIDE button) on a remote control or other user inputinterface or device. In response to the user's indication, the mediaguidance application may provide a display screen with media guidancedata organized in one of several ways, such as by time and channel in agrid, by time, by channel, by source, by content type, by category(e.g., movies, sports, news, children, or other categories ofprogramming), or other predefined, user-defined, or other organizationcriteria.

FIG. 4 shows illustrative grid of a program listings display 400arranged by time and channel that also enables access to different typesof content in a single display. Display 400 may include grid 402 with:(1) a column of channel/content type identifiers 404, where eachchannel/content type identifier (which is a cell in the column)identifies a different channel or content type available; and (2) a rowof time identifiers 406, where each time identifier (which is a cell inthe row) identifies a time block of programming. Grid 402 also includescells of program listings, such as program listing 408, where eachlisting provides the title of the program provided on the listing'sassociated channel and time. With a user input device, a user can selectprogram listings by moving highlight region 410. Information relating tothe program listing selected by highlight region 410 may be provided inprogram information region 412. Region 412 may include, for example, theprogram title, the program description, the time the program is provided(if applicable), the channel the program is on (if applicable), theprogram's rating, and other desired information.

In addition to providing access to linear programming (e.g., contentthat is scheduled to be transmitted to a plurality of user equipmentdevices at a predetermined time and is provided according to aschedule), the media guidance application also provides access tonon-linear programming (e.g., content accessible to a user equipmentdevice at any time and is not provided according to a schedule).Non-linear programming may include content from different contentsources including on-demand content (e.g., VOD), Internet content (e.g.,streaming media, downloadable media, etc.), locally stored content(e.g., content stored on any user equipment device described above orother storage device), or other time-independent content. On-demandcontent may include movies or any other content provided by a particularcontent provider (e.g., HBO On Demand providing “The Sopranos” and “CurbYour Enthusiasm”). HBO ON DEMAND is a service mark owned by Time WarnerCompany L.P. et al. and THE SOPRANOS and CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM aretrademarks owned by the Home Box Office, Inc. Internet content mayinclude web events, such as a chat session or Webcast, or contentavailable on-demand as streaming content or downloadable content throughan Internet web site or other Internet access (e.g., FTP).

Grid 402 may provide media guidance data for non-linear programmingincluding on-demand listing 414, recorded content listing 416, andInternet content listing 418. A display combining media guidance datafor content from different types of content sources is sometimesreferred to as a “mixed-media” display. Various permutations of thetypes of media guidance data that may be displayed that are differentthan display 400 may be based on user selection or guidance applicationdefinition (e.g., a display of only recorded and broadcast listings,only on-demand and broadcast listings, etc.). As illustrated, listings414, 416, and 418 are shown as spanning the entire time block displayedin grid 402 to indicate that selection of these listings may provideaccess to a display dedicated to on-demand listings, recorded listings,or Internet listings, respectively. In some embodiments, listings forthese content types may be included directly in grid 402. Additionalmedia guidance data may be displayed in response to the user selectingone of the navigational icons 420. (Pressing an arrow key on a userinput device may affect the display in a similar manner as selectingnavigational icons 420.)

Display 400 may also include video region 422, and options region 426.Video region 422 may allow the user to view and/or preview programs thatare currently available, will be available, or were available to theuser. The content of video region 422 may correspond to, or beindependent from, one of the listings displayed in grid 402. Griddisplays including a video region are sometimes referred to aspicture-in-guide (PIG) displays. PIG displays and their functionalitiesare described in greater detail in Satterfield et al. U.S. Pat. No.6,564,378, issued May 13, 2003 and Yuen et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,239,794,issued May 29, 2001, which are hereby incorporated by reference hereinin their entireties. PIG displays may be included in other mediaguidance application display screens of the embodiments describedherein.

Options region 426 may allow the user to access different types ofcontent, media guidance application displays, and/or media guidanceapplication features. Options region 426 may be part of display 400 (andother display screens described herein), or may be invoked by a user byselecting an on-screen option or pressing a dedicated or assignablebutton on a user input device. The selectable options within optionsregion 426 may concern features related to program listings in grid 402or may include options available from a main menu display. Featuresrelated to program listings may include searching for other air times orways of receiving a program, recording a program, enabling seriesrecording of a program, setting program and/or channel as a favorite,purchasing a program, or other features. Options available from a mainmenu display may include search options, VOD options, parental controloptions, Internet options, cloud-based options, device synchronizationoptions, second screen device options, options to access various typesof media guidance data displays, options to subscribe to a premiumservice, options to edit a user's profile, options to access a browseoverlay, or other options.

The media guidance application may be personalized based on a user'spreferences. A personalized media guidance application allows a user tocustomize displays and features to create a personalized “experience”with the media guidance application. This personalized experience may becreated by allowing a user to input these customizations and/or by themedia guidance application monitoring user activity to determine varioususer preferences. Users may access their personalized guidanceapplication by logging in or otherwise identifying themselves to theguidance application. Customization of the media guidance applicationmay be made in accordance with a user profile. The customizations mayinclude varying presentation schemes (e.g., color scheme of displays,font size of text, etc.), aspects of content listings displayed (e.g.,only HDTV or only 3D programming, user-specified broadcast channelsbased on favorite channel selections, re-ordering the display ofchannels, recommended content, etc.), desired recording features (e.g.,recording or series recordings for particular users, recording quality,etc.), parental control settings, customized presentation of Internetcontent (e.g., presentation of social media content, e-mail,electronically delivered articles, etc.) and other desiredcustomizations.

The media guidance application may allow a user to provide user profileinformation or may automatically compile user profile information. Themedia guidance application may, for example, monitor the content theuser accesses and/or other interactions the user may have with theguidance application. Additionally, the media guidance application mayobtain all or part of other user profiles that are related to aparticular user (e.g., from other web sites on the Internet the useraccesses, such as www.Tivo.com, from other media guidance applicationsthe user accesses, from other interactive applications the useraccesses, from another user equipment device of the user, etc.), and/orobtain information about the user from other sources that the mediaguidance application may access. As a result, a user can be providedwith a unified guidance application experience across the user'sdifferent user equipment devices. This type of user experience isdescribed in greater detail below in connection with FIG. 7. Additionalpersonalized media guidance application features are described ingreater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No.2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005, Boyer et al., U.S. Pat. No.7,165,098, issued Jan. 16, 2007, and Ellis et al., U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2002/0174430, filed Feb. 21, 2002, which arehereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.

Another display arrangement for providing media guidance is shown inFIG. 5. Video mosaic display 500 includes selectable options 502 forcontent information organized based on content type, genre, and/or otherorganization criteria. In display 500, television listings option 504 isselected, thus providing listings 506, 508, 510, and 512 as broadcastprogram listings. In display 500 the listings may provide graphicalimages including cover art, still images from the content, video clippreviews, live video from the content, or other types of content thatindicate to a user the content being described by the media guidancedata in the listing. Each of the graphical listings may also beaccompanied by text to provide further information about the contentassociated with the listing. For example, listing 508 may include morethan one portion, including media portion 514 and text portion 516.Media portion 514 and/or text portion 516 may be selectable to viewcontent in full-screen or to view information related to the contentdisplayed in media portion 514 (e.g., to view listings for the channelthat the video is displayed on).

The listings in display 500 are of different sizes (i.e., listing 506 islarger than listings 508, 510, and 512), but if desired, all thelistings may be the same size. Listings may be of different sizes orgraphically accentuated to indicate degrees of interest to the user orto emphasize certain content, as desired by the content provider orbased on user preferences. Various systems and methods for graphicallyaccentuating content listings are discussed in, for example, Yates, U.S.Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0153885, filed Nov. 12, 2009,which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Users may access content and the media guidance application (and itsdisplay screens described above and below) from one or more of theiruser equipment devices. FIG. 6 shows a generalized embodiment ofillustrative user equipment device 600. More specific implementations ofuser equipment devices are discussed below in connection with FIG. 7.User equipment device 600 may receive content and data via input/output(hereinafter “I/O”) path 602. I/O path 602 may provide content (e.g.,broadcast programming, on-demand programming, Internet content, contentavailable over a local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN),and/or other content) and data to control circuitry 604, which includesprocessing circuitry 606 and storage 608. Control circuitry 604 may beused to send and receive commands, requests, and other suitable datausing I/O path 602. I/O path 602 may connect control circuitry 604 (andspecifically processing circuitry 606) to one or more communicationspaths (described below). I/O functions may be provided by one or more ofthese communications paths, but are shown as a single path in FIG. 6 toavoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Control circuitry 604 may be based on any suitable processing circuitrysuch as processing circuitry 606. As referred to herein, processingcircuitry should be understood to mean circuitry based on one or moremicroprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors,programmable logic devices, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs),application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc., and may includea multi-core processor (e.g., dual-core, quad-core, hexa-core, or anysuitable number of cores) or supercomputer. In some embodiments,processing circuitry may be distributed across multiple separateprocessors or processing units, for example, multiple of the same typeof processing units (e.g., two Intel Core i7 processors) or multipledifferent processors (e.g., an Intel Core i5 processor and an Intel Corei7 processor). In some embodiments, control circuitry 604 executesinstructions for a media guidance application stored in memory (i.e.,storage 608). Specifically, control circuitry 604 may be instructed bythe media guidance application to perform the functions discussed aboveand below. For example, the media guidance application may provideinstructions to control circuitry 604 to generate the media guidancedisplays. In some implementations, any action performed by controlcircuitry 604 may be based on instructions received from the mediaguidance application.

In client-server based embodiments, control circuitry 604 may includecommunications circuitry suitable for communicating with a guidanceapplication server or other networks or servers. The instructions forcarrying out the above mentioned functionality may be stored on theguidance application server. Communications circuitry may include acable modem, an integrated services digital network (ISDN) modem, adigital subscriber line (DSL) modem, a telephone modem, Ethernet card,or a wireless modem for communications with other equipment, or anyother suitable communications circuitry. Such communications may involvethe Internet or any other suitable communications networks or paths(which is described in more detail in connection with FIG. 7). Inaddition, communications circuitry may include circuitry that enablespeer-to-peer communication of user equipment devices, or communicationof user equipment devices in locations remote from each other (describedin more detail below).

Memory may be an electronic storage device provided as storage 608 thatis part of control circuitry 604. As referred to herein, the phrase“electronic storage device” or “storage device” should be understood tomean any device for storing electronic data, computer software, orfirmware, such as random-access memory, read-only memory, hard drives,optical drives, digital video disc (DVD) recorders, compact disc (CD)recorders, BLU-RAY disc (BD) recorders, BLU-RAY 3D disc recorders,digital video recorders (DVR, sometimes called a personal videorecorder, or PVR), solid state devices, quantum storage devices, gamingconsoles, gaming media, or any other suitable fixed or removable storagedevices, and/or any combination of the same. Storage 608 may be used tostore various types of content described herein as well as mediaguidance data described above. Nonvolatile memory may also be used(e.g., to launch a boot-up routine and other instructions). Cloud-basedstorage, described in relation to FIG. 7, may be used to supplementstorage 608 or instead of storage 608.

Control circuitry 604 may include video generating circuitry and tuningcircuitry, such as one or more analog tuners, one or more MPEG-2decoders or other digital decoding circuitry, high-definition tuners, orany other suitable tuning or video circuits or combinations of suchcircuits. Encoding circuitry (e.g., for converting over-the-air, analog,or digital signals to MPEG signals for storage) may also be provided.Control circuitry 604 may also include scaler circuitry for upconvertingand downconverting content into the preferred output format of the userequipment 600. Circuitry 604 may also include digital-to-analogconverter circuitry and analog-to-digital converter circuitry forconverting between digital and analog signals. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may be used by the user equipment device to receive and todisplay, to play, or to record content. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may also be used to receive guidance data. The circuitrydescribed herein, including for example, the tuning, video generating,encoding, decoding, encrypting, decrypting, scaler, and analog/digitalcircuitry, may be implemented using software running on one or moregeneral purpose or specialized processors. Multiple tuners may beprovided to handle simultaneous tuning functions (e.g., watch and recordfunctions, picture-in-picture (PIP) functions, multiple-tuner recording,etc.). If storage 608 is provided as a separate device from userequipment 600, the tuning and encoding circuitry (including multipletuners) may be associated with storage 608.

A user may send instructions to control circuitry 604 using user inputinterface 610. User input interface 610 may be any suitable userinterface, such as a remote control, mouse, trackball, keypad, keyboard,touch screen, touchpad, stylus input, joystick, voice recognitioninterface, or other user input interfaces. Display 612 may be providedas a stand-alone device or integrated with other elements of userequipment device 600. For example, display 612 may be a touchscreen ortouch-sensitive display. In such circumstances, user input interface 610may be integrated with or combined with display 612. Display 612 may beone or more of a monitor, a television, a liquid crystal display (LCD)for a mobile device, amorphous silicon display, low temperature polysilicon display, electronic ink display, electrophoretic display, activematrix display, electro-wetting display, electrofluidic display, cathoderay tube display, light-emitting diode display, electroluminescentdisplay, plasma display panel, high-performance addressing display,thin-film transistor display, organic light-emitting diode display,surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED), laser television,carbon nanotubes, quantum dot display, interferometric modulatordisplay, or any other suitable equipment for displaying visual images.In some embodiments, display 612 may be HDTV-capable. In someembodiments, display 612 may be a 3D display, and the interactive mediaguidance application and any suitable content may be displayed in 3D. Avideo card or graphics card may generate the output to the display 612.The video card may offer various functions such as accelerated renderingof 3D scenes and 2D graphics, MPEG-2/MPEG-4 decoding, TV output, or theability to connect multiple monitors. The video card may be anyprocessing circuitry described above in relation to control circuitry604. The video card may be integrated with the control circuitry 604.Speakers 614 may be provided as integrated with other elements of userequipment device 600 or may be stand-alone units. The audio component ofvideos and other content displayed on display 612 may be played throughspeakers 614. In some embodiments, the audio may be distributed to areceiver (not shown), which processes and outputs the audio via speakers614.

The guidance application may be implemented using any suitablearchitecture. For example, it may be a stand-alone applicationwholly-implemented on user equipment device 600. In such an approach,instructions of the application are stored locally (e.g., in storage608), and data for use by the application is downloaded on a periodicbasis (e.g., from an out-of-band feed, from an Internet resource, orusing another suitable approach). Control circuitry 604 may retrieveinstructions of the application from storage 608 and process theinstructions to generate any of the displays discussed herein. Based onthe processed instructions, control circuitry 604 may determine whataction to perform when input is received from input interface 610. Forexample, movement of a cursor on a display up/down may be indicated bythe processed instructions when input interface 610 indicates that anup/down button was selected.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is a client-serverbased application. Data for use by a thick or thin client implemented onuser equipment device 600 is retrieved on-demand by issuing requests toa server remote to the user equipment device 600. In one example of aclient-server based guidance application, control circuitry 604 runs aweb browser that interprets web pages provided by a remote server. Forexample, the remote server may store the instructions for theapplication in a storage device. The remote server may process thestored instructions using circuitry (e.g., control circuitry 604) andgenerate the displays discussed above and below. The client device mayreceive the displays generated by the remote server and may display thecontent of the displays locally on equipment device 600. This way, theprocessing of the instructions is performed remotely by the server whilethe resulting displays are provided locally on equipment device 600.Equipment device 600 may receive inputs from the user via inputinterface 610 and transmit those inputs to the remote server forprocessing and generating the corresponding displays. For example,equipment device 600 may transmit a communication to the remote serverindicating that an up/down button was selected via input interface 610.The remote server may process instructions in accordance with that inputand generate a display of the application corresponding to the input(e.g., a display that moves a cursor up/down). The generated display isthen transmitted to equipment device 600 for presentation to the user.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is downloaded andinterpreted or otherwise run by an interpreter or virtual machine (runby control circuitry 604). In some embodiments, the guidance applicationmay be encoded in the ETV Binary Interchange Format (EBIF), received bycontrol circuitry 604 as part of a suitable feed, and interpreted by auser agent running on control circuitry 604. For example, the guidanceapplication may be an EBIF application. In some embodiments, theguidance application may be defined by a series of JAVA-based files thatare received and run by a local virtual machine or other suitablemiddleware executed by control circuitry 604. In some of suchembodiments (e.g., those employing MPEG-2 or other digital mediaencoding schemes), the guidance application may be, for example, encodedand transmitted in an MPEG-2 object carousel with the MPEG audio andvideo packets of a program.

User equipment device 600 of FIG. 6 can be implemented in system 700 ofFIG. 7 as user television equipment 702, user computer equipment 704,wireless user communications device 706, or any other type of userequipment suitable for accessing content, such as a non-portable gamingmachine. For simplicity, these devices may be referred to hereincollectively as user equipment or user equipment devices, and may besubstantially similar to user equipment devices described above. Userequipment devices, on which a media guidance application may beimplemented, may function as a standalone device or may be part of anetwork of devices. Various network configurations of devices may beimplemented and are discussed in more detail below.

A user equipment device utilizing at least some of the system featuresdescribed above in connection with FIG. 6 may not be classified solelyas user television equipment 702, user computer equipment 704, or awireless user communications device 706. For example, user televisionequipment 702 may, like some user computer equipment 704, beInternet-enabled allowing for access to Internet content, while usercomputer equipment 704 may, like some television equipment 702, includea tuner allowing for access to television programming. The mediaguidance application may have the same layout on various different typesof user equipment or may be tailored to the display capabilities of theuser equipment. For example, on user computer equipment 704, theguidance application may be provided as a web site accessed by a webbrowser. In another example, the guidance application may be scaled downfor wireless user communications devices 706.

In system 700, there is typically more than one of each type of userequipment device but only one of each is shown in FIG. 7 to avoidovercomplicating the drawing. In addition, each user may utilize morethan one type of user equipment device and also more than one of eachtype of user equipment device.

In some embodiments, a user equipment device (e.g., user televisionequipment 702, user computer equipment 704, wireless user communicationsdevice 706) may be referred to as a “second screen device.” For example,a second screen device may supplement content presented on a first userequipment device. The content presented on the second screen device maybe any suitable content that supplements the content presented on thefirst device. In some embodiments, the second screen device provides aninterface for adjusting settings and display preferences of the firstdevice. In some embodiments, the second screen device is configured forinteracting with other second screen devices or for interacting with asocial network. The second screen device can be located in the same roomas the first device, a different room from the first device but in thesame house or building, or in a different building from the firstdevice.

The user may also set various settings to maintain consistent mediaguidance application settings across in-home devices and remote devices.Settings include those described herein, as well as channel and programfavorites, programming preferences that the guidance applicationutilizes to make programming recommendations, display preferences, andother desirable guidance settings. For example, if a user sets a channelas a favorite on, for example, the web site www.Tivo.com on theirpersonal computer at their office, the same channel would appear as afavorite on the user's in-home devices (e.g., user television equipmentand user computer equipment) as well as the user's mobile devices, ifdesired. Therefore, changes made on one user equipment device can changethe guidance experience on another user equipment device, regardless ofwhether they are the same or a different type of user equipment device.In addition, the changes made may be based on settings input by a user,as well as user activity monitored by the guidance application.

The user equipment devices may be coupled to communications network 714.Namely, user television equipment 702, user computer equipment 704, andwireless user communications device 706 are coupled to communicationsnetwork 714 via communications paths 708, 710, and 712, respectively.Communications network 714 may be one or more networks including theInternet, a mobile phone network, mobile voice or data network (e.g., a4G or LTE network), cable network, public switched telephone network, orother types of communications network or combinations of communicationsnetworks. Paths 708, 710, and 712 may separately or together include oneor more communications paths, such as, a satellite path, a fiber-opticpath, a cable path, a path that supports Internet communications (e.g.,IPTV), free-space connections (e.g., for broadcast or other wirelesssignals), or any other suitable wired or wireless communications path orcombination of such paths. Path 712 is drawn with dotted lines toindicate that in the exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 7 it is awireless path and paths 708 and 710 are drawn as solid lines to indicatethey are wired paths (although these paths may be wireless paths, ifdesired). Communications with the user equipment devices may be providedby one or more of these communications paths, but are shown as a singlepath in FIG. 7 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Although communications paths are not drawn between user equipmentdevices, these devices may communicate directly with each other viacommunication paths, such as those described above in connection withpaths 708, 710, and 712, as well as other short-range point-to-pointcommunication paths, such as USB cables, IEEE 1394 cables, wirelesspaths (e.g., Bluetooth, infrared, IEEE 802-11x, etc.), or othershort-range communication via wired or wireless paths. BLUETOOTH is acertification mark owned by Bluetooth SIG, INC. The user equipmentdevices may also communicate with each other directly through anindirect path via communications network 714.

System 700 includes content source 716 and media guidance data source718 coupled to communications network 714 via communication paths 720and 722, respectively. Paths 720 and 722 may include any of thecommunication paths described above in connection with paths 708, 710,and 712. Communications with the content source 716 and media guidancedata source 718 may be exchanged over one or more communications paths,but are shown as a single path in FIG. 7 to avoid overcomplicating thedrawing. In addition, there may be more than one of each of contentsource 716 and media guidance data source 718, but only one of each isshown in FIG. 7 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing. (The differenttypes of each of these sources are discussed below.) If desired, contentsource 716 and media guidance data source 718 may be integrated as onesource device. Although communications between sources 716 and 718 withuser equipment devices 702, 704, and 706 are shown as throughcommunications network 714, in some embodiments, sources 716 and 718 maycommunicate directly with user equipment devices 702, 704, and 706 viacommunication paths (not shown) such as those described above inconnection with paths 708, 710, and 712.

Content source 716 may include one or more types of content distributionequipment including a television distribution facility, cable systemheadend, satellite distribution facility, programming sources (e.g.,television broadcasters, such as NBC, ABC, HBO, etc.), intermediatedistribution facilities and/or servers, Internet providers, on-demandmedia servers, and other content providers. NBC is a trademark owned bythe National Broadcasting Company, Inc., ABC is a trademark owned by theAmerican Broadcasting Company, Inc., and HBO is a trademark owned by theHome Box Office, Inc. Content source 716 may be the originator ofcontent (e.g., a television broadcaster, a Webcast provider, etc.) ormay not be the originator of content (e.g., an on-demand contentprovider, an Internet provider of content of broadcast programs fordownloading, etc.). Content source 716 may include cable sources,satellite providers, on-demand providers, Internet providers,over-the-top content providers, or other providers of content. Contentsource 716 may also include a remote media server used to storedifferent types of content (including video content selected by a user),in a location remote from any of the user equipment devices. Systems andmethods for remote storage of content, and providing remotely storedcontent to user equipment are discussed in greater detail in connectionwith Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,761,892, issued Jul. 20, 2010, whichis hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Media guidance data source 718 may provide media guidance data, such asthe media guidance data described above. Media guidance data may beprovided to the user equipment devices using any suitable approach. Insome embodiments, the guidance application may be a stand-aloneinteractive television program guide that receives program guide datavia a data feed (e.g., a continuous feed or trickle feed). Programschedule data and other guidance data may be provided to the userequipment on a television channel sideband, using an in-band digitalsignal, using an out-of-band digital signal, or by any other suitabledata transmission technique. Program schedule data and other mediaguidance data may be provided to user equipment on multiple analog ordigital television channels.

In some embodiments, guidance data from media guidance data source 718may be provided to users' equipment using a client-server approach. Forexample, a user equipment device may pull media guidance data from aserver, or a server may push media guidance data to a user equipmentdevice. In some embodiments, a guidance application client residing onthe user's equipment may initiate sessions with source 718 to obtainguidance data when needed, e.g., when the guidance data is out of dateor when the user equipment device receives a request from the user toreceive data. Media guidance may be provided to the user equipment withany suitable frequency (e.g., continuously, daily, a user-specifiedperiod of time, a system-specified period of time, in response to arequest from user equipment, etc.). Media guidance data source 718 mayprovide user equipment devices 702, 704, and 706 the media guidanceapplication itself or software updates for the media guidanceapplication.

In some embodiments, the media guidance data may include viewer data.For example, the viewer data may include current and/or historical useractivity information (e.g., what content the user typically watches,what times of day the user watches content, whether the user interactswith a social network, at what times the user interacts with a socialnetwork to post information, what types of content the user typicallywatches (e.g., pay TV or free TV), mood, brain activity information,etc.). The media guidance data may also include subscription data. Forexample, the subscription data may identify to which sources or servicesa given user subscribes and/or to which sources or services the givenuser has previously subscribed but later terminated access (e.g.,whether the user subscribes to premium channels, whether the user hasadded a premium level of services, whether the user has increasedInternet speed). In some embodiments, the viewer data and/or thesubscription data may identify patterns of a given user for a period ofmore than one year. The media guidance data may include a model (e.g., asurvivor model) used for generating a score that indicates a likelihooda given user will terminate access to a service/source. For example, themedia guidance application may process the viewer data with thesubscription data using the model to generate a value or score thatindicates a likelihood of whether the given user will terminate accessto a particular service or source. In particular, a higher score mayindicate a higher level of confidence that the user will terminateaccess to a particular service or source. Based on the score, the mediaguidance application may generate promotions that entice the user tokeep the particular service or source indicated by the score as one towhich the user will likely terminate access.

Media guidance applications may be, for example, stand-aloneapplications implemented on user equipment devices. For example, themedia guidance application may be implemented as software or a set ofexecutable instructions which may be stored in storage 608, and executedby control circuitry 604 of a user equipment device 600. In someembodiments, media guidance applications may be client-serverapplications where only a client application resides on the userequipment device, and server application resides on a remote server. Forexample, media guidance applications may be implemented partially as aclient application on control circuitry 604 of user equipment device 600and partially on a remote server as a server application (e.g., mediaguidance data source 718) running on control circuitry of the remoteserver. When executed by control circuitry of the remote server (such asmedia guidance data source 718), the media guidance application mayinstruct the control circuitry to generate the guidance applicationdisplays and transmit the generated displays to the user equipmentdevices. The server application may instruct the control circuitry ofthe media guidance data source 718 to transmit data for storage on theuser equipment. The client application may instruct control circuitry ofthe receiving user equipment to generate the guidance applicationdisplays.

Content and/or media guidance data delivered to user equipment devices702, 704, and 706 may be over-the-top (OTT) content. OTT contentdelivery allows Internet-enabled user devices, including any userequipment device described above, to receive content that is transferredover the Internet, including any content described above, in addition tocontent received over cable or satellite connections. OTT content isdelivered via an Internet connection provided by an Internet serviceprovider (ISP), but a third party distributes the content. The ISP maynot be responsible for the viewing abilities, copyrights, orredistribution of the content, and may only transfer IP packets providedby the OTT content provider. Examples of OTT content providers includeYOUTUBE, NETFLIX, and HULU, which provide audio and video via IPpackets. Youtube is a trademark owned by Google Inc., Netflix is atrademark owned by Netflix Inc., and Hulu is a trademark owned by Hulu,LLC. OTT content providers may additionally or alternatively providemedia guidance data described above. In addition to content and/or mediaguidance data, providers of OTT content can distribute media guidanceapplications (e.g., web-based applications or cloud-based applications),or the content can be displayed by media guidance applications stored onthe user equipment device.

Media guidance system 700 is intended to illustrate a number ofapproaches, or network configurations, by which user equipment devicesand sources of content and guidance data may communicate with each otherfor the purpose of accessing content and providing media guidance. Theembodiments described herein may be applied in any one or a subset ofthese approaches, or in a system employing other approaches fordelivering content and providing media guidance. The following fourapproaches provide specific illustrations of the generalized example ofFIG. 7.

In one approach, user equipment devices may communicate with each otherwithin a home network. User equipment devices can communicate with eachother directly via short-range point-to-point communication schemesdescribed above, via indirect paths through a hub or other similardevice provided on a home network, or via communications network 714.Each of the multiple individuals in a single home may operate differentuser equipment devices on the home network. As a result, it may bedesirable for various media guidance information or settings to becommunicated between the different user equipment devices. For example,it may be desirable for users to maintain consistent media guidanceapplication settings on different user equipment devices within a homenetwork, as described in greater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. PatentPublication No. 2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005. Different types ofuser equipment devices in a home network may also communicate with eachother to transmit content. For example, a user may transmit content fromuser computer equipment to a portable video player or portable musicplayer.

In a second approach, users may have multiple types of user equipment bywhich they access content and obtain media guidance. For example, someusers may have home networks that are accessed by in-home and mobiledevices. Users may control in-home devices via a media guidanceapplication implemented on a remote device. For example, users mayaccess an online media guidance application on a website via a personalcomputer at their office, or a mobile device such as a PDA orweb-enabled mobile telephone. The user may set various settings (e.g.,recordings, reminders, or other settings) on the online guidanceapplication to control the user's in-home equipment. The online guidemay control the user's equipment directly, or by communicating with amedia guidance application on the user's in-home equipment. Varioussystems and methods for user equipment devices communicating, where theuser equipment devices are in locations remote from each other, isdiscussed in, for example, Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 8,046,801, issuedOct. 25, 2011, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in itsentirety.

In a third approach, users of user equipment devices inside and outsidea home can use their media guidance application to communicate directlywith content source 716 to access content. Specifically, within a home,users of user television equipment 702 and user computer equipment 704may access the media guidance application to navigate among and locatedesirable content. Users may also access the media guidance applicationoutside of the home using wireless user communications devices 706 tonavigate among and locate desirable content.

In a fourth approach, user equipment devices may operate in a cloudcomputing environment to access cloud services. In a cloud computingenvironment, various types of computing services for content sharing,storage or distribution (e.g., video sharing sites or social networkingsites) are provided by a collection of network-accessible computing andstorage resources, referred to as “the cloud.” For example, the cloudcan include a collection of server computing devices, which may belocated centrally or at distributed locations, that provide cloud-basedservices to various types of users and devices connected via a networksuch as the Internet via communications network 714. These cloudresources may include one or more content sources 716 and one or moremedia guidance data sources 718. In addition or in the alternative, theremote computing sites may include other user equipment devices, such asuser television equipment 702, user computer equipment 704, and wirelessuser communications device 706. For example, the other user equipmentdevices may provide access to a stored copy of a video or a streamedvideo. In such embodiments, user equipment devices may operate in apeer-to-peer manner without communicating with a central server.

The cloud provides access to services, such as content storage, contentsharing, or social networking services, among other examples, as well asaccess to any content described above, for user equipment devices.Services can be provided in the cloud through cloud computing serviceproviders, or through other providers of online services. For example,the cloud-based services can include a content storage service, acontent sharing site, a social networking site, or other services viawhich user-sourced content is distributed for viewing by others onconnected devices. These cloud-based services may allow a user equipmentdevice to store content to the cloud and to receive content from thecloud rather than storing content locally and accessing locally-storedcontent.

A user may use various content capture devices, such as camcorders,digital cameras with video mode, audio recorders, mobile phones, andhandheld computing devices, to record content. The user can uploadcontent to a content storage service on the cloud either directly, forexample, from user computer equipment 704 or wireless usercommunications device 706 having content capture feature. Alternatively,the user can first transfer the content to a user equipment device, suchas user computer equipment 704. The user equipment device storing thecontent uploads the content to the cloud using a data transmissionservice on communications network 714. In some embodiments, the userequipment device itself is a cloud resource, and other user equipmentdevices can access the content directly from the user equipment deviceon which the user stored the content.

Cloud resources may be accessed by a user equipment device using, forexample, a web browser, a media guidance application, a desktopapplication, a mobile application, and/or any combination of accessapplications of the same. The user equipment device may be a cloudclient that relies on cloud computing for application delivery, or theuser equipment device may have some functionality without access tocloud resources. For example, some applications running on the userequipment device may be cloud applications, i.e., applications deliveredas a service over the Internet, while other applications may be storedand run on the user equipment device. In some embodiments, a user devicemay receive content from multiple cloud resources simultaneously. Forexample, a user device can stream audio from one cloud resource whiledownloading content from a second cloud resource. Or a user device candownload content from multiple cloud resources for more efficientdownloading. In some embodiments, user equipment devices can use cloudresources for processing operations such as the processing operationsperformed by processing circuitry described in relation to FIG. 6.

As referred herein, the term “in response to” refers to initiated as aresult of. For example, a first action being performed in response to asecond action may include interstitial steps between the first actionand the second action. As referred herein, the term “directly inresponse to” refers to caused by. For example, a first action beingperformed directly in response to a second action may not includeinterstitial steps between the first action and the second action.

FIG. 8 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for managing thequality levels and formats used to store media assets, in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure. Process 800 may be executed bycontrol circuitry 604 (e.g., in a manner instructed to control circuitry604 by the media guidance application). Control circuitry 604 may bepart of user equipment (e.g., a user equipment generating media guidanceapplication 105, which may have any or all of the functionality of usertelevision equipment 702, user computer equipment 704, and/or wirelesscommunications device 706), or of a remote server separated from theuser equipment by way of communication network 714, or distributed overa combination of both.

Process 800 begins at 805, where control circuitry 604 stores, at agiven time, the media asset in a first format having a first qualitylevel. For example, control circuitry 604 may receive a media asset frommedia content source 716 and store the media asset in storage 608.

Process 800 continues with control circuitry 604 retrieving, from a datasource, a data entry corresponding to the media asset at 810. Forexample, control circuitry 604 may retrieve a data entry from storage608 or retrieve the data entry from a remote data source such as mediacontent source 716, media guidance data source 718 or remote server 715.

At 815, control circuitry 604 determines, based on the data entry, athreshold period of time for storing the media asset in the firstformat. For example, the control circuitry 604 may determine that a copyof a media asset stored in high-quality format, e.g. 4K, should bestored in that format for two weeks. The control circuitry 604 maydetermine the threshold time period based only on the quality level ofthe media asset or on additional parameters. The control circuitry 604may determine the time period based on user preferences for storingquality levels of a media asset. In some embodiments, the controlcircuitry 604 may determine the threshold time period based on amount ofavailable storage in the storage space associated with the storage ofthe media asset. In some embodiments, the control circuitry 604 maydetermine the threshold time period based on a combination of metadataassociated with the media asset, user preferences, and/or storage spaceassociated with the storage of the media asset. For example, the controlcircuitry 604 may determine the media asset is a children's program andis stored in a 4K quality format. The control circuitry 604 may alsodetermine that the user prefers storing children's programs in highquality for an indefinite amount of time, as long as at least 50% ofstorage space is available; but if less than 50% of storage space isavailable, then the user has a preference for storing children'sprograms in high quality for two weeks. In some embodiments, the controlcircuitry 604 determines the time period based on a user associated withthe storage of the media asset. For example, the control circuitry 604may receive interactions from a plurality of users, and some users maybe given a higher priority for storage of media assets than other users.The control circuitry 604 may then determine that a first user initiatedthe storage of a media asset and determine the time period for storingthe media asset in the first format based on the associated user. Thecontrol circuitry 604 may then store the determined time period in adata entry associated with the media asset.

Process 800 continues at 820 where control circuitry 604 detects whetherthe threshold period of time since the given time has passed. If thecontrol circuitry 604 determines that the threshold has not passed,process 800 concludes at step 890. If control circuitry 604 detects thatthe threshold period of time since the given time has passed, thecontrol circuitry 604 continues process 800 at 825 by altering a firstportion of the media asset from the first format having the firstquality level to a second format having a second quality level. In someembodiments, the control circuitry 604 alters a first portion of themedia asset from the first format having the first quality level to asecond format having a second quality level. In some embodiments, thecontrol circuitry 604 will alter the stored copy of the media asset froma first format to a second format as a whole. In other words, thecontrol circuitry 604 performs the quality reduction on the entire copyof the media asset that was stored. In some embodiments, the controlcircuitry 604 will alter a portion of the media asset from a firstformat to a second format. For example, the control circuitry 604 maydetermine that a user has watched the first 25% of the media asset andalter the quality level of only the first 25% of the media and leave theremaining 75% in the quality level that was initially stored. In someembodiments, the control circuitry 604 may identify non-substantiveportions of a media asset, e.g., credits, announcements, sponsorships,and/or advertisements, and transcode those portions to lower quality toreduce storage space.

FIG. 9 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for altering theformat of a media asset, in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure. Process 900 further depicts a method for altering a mediaasset, for example expanding from step 825 from FIG. 8. Process 900begins at 905 where control circuitry 604 determines a plurality ofattributes corresponding to the media asset based on informationindicated by the data entry. At 910, the control circuitry 604 continuesprocess 900 by computing an importance of the media asset based on eachattribute of the plurality of attributes. For example, the controlcircuitry 604 may determine that an episode of “Classical Baby” has alow importance because it is a children's program containing animationwhich does not require a high amount of quality to preserve fidelity.Furthermore, the control circuitry 604 may consider user preferences incombination with the plurality of attributes to determine the importanceof a media asset. For example, user preferences may indicate the mediaassets associated with specific genres, sports, actions, teams, titles,dates and times, keywords, and/or channels should be computed as moreimportant or less important. In some embodiments, the control circuitry604 may use information regarding the available storage space associatedwith the media in combination with other attributes to determine theimportance of the media asset. In some embodiments, the controlcircuitry 604 may have the ability to store portions or entire mediaassets in a secondary storage, e.g. on a remote server, for laterretrieval and may compute the importance of the media asset based, inpart, on whether portions or the entire media asset is available atspecific quality levels in secondary storage. In some embodiments, thecontrol circuitry 604 correlates the importance of the media asset witha target quality level, e.g. very important media assets should be heldin the highest quality level while low-importance assets are kept inlower quality levels.

The control circuitry 604 may employ a series of flow control algorithmsto determine an importance value from the metadata associated with amedia asset. The control circuitry 604 may give a weight to a pluralityof attributes and employ the weighted values in a calculation to arriveat the importance value. In some embodiments, the control circuitry 604may employ multivariate analysis on metadata associated with the mediaasset to determine the importance value of the media asset. In someembodiments, the control circuitry 604 may analyze the content of themedia asset to determine the importance of the media asset. For example,the control circuitry 604 may analyze the content of an episode of“Classical Baby” and determine that the media content would not benefitfrom high quality storage and, therefore, the importance of the mediaasset should be lower. This determination may be because the quality ofthe media content is such that storage in a high-quality level isinefficient (e.g., perhaps the media asset is an older show that wasoriginally captured in low quality or has artifacts from digitizationthat make high quality storage inefficient). This determination may bebecause the content does not lend itself to high quality storage. Thisdetermination may be based on training a neural network to identify thetarget quality level. For example, the control circuitry 604 may track,for one or more users, the quality levels of media assets that the userskeep. The control circuitry 604 may extract several pertinent traits ofthe media assets to train a neural network on the traits that correspondwith quality levels. The control circuitry 604 may then use the trainedneural network to determine the importance of a media asset in line withthe trained network.

Process 900 continues at 915, where the control circuitry 604 determinesan amount of quality by which to reduce the first quality level based,in part, on the importance of the media asset. For example, the controlcircuitry 604 may calculate an importance value that is used to look upthe target quality level from a table that correlates importance valueswith target quality levels. At 920, the control circuitry 604 transcodesthe first portion of the media asset from the first format to the secondformat by reducing the first quality level by the determined amount tothe second quality level.

FIG. 10 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for identifying aportion of a media asset to be altered, in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure. Process 1000 begins prior to transcodinga media asset, for example before step 920 of FIG. 9, and may be used,especially, in embodiments where the control circuitry 604 is capable oftranscoding portions of a media asset. Process 1000 begins at 1005,where control circuitry 604 detects a time point in the media assetwhere playback of the media asset was suspended. For example, thecontrol circuitry 604 may receive a command to suspend playback of amedia asset (e.g., a pause, an exit, a stop command, or change channelcommand). The control circuitry 604 may keep track of the time pointwhen it received a command to suspend playback, for example in a dateentry associated with the media asset as described above.

At 1010, control circuitry 604 determines whether the time point occurswithin a threshold amount of time from the endpoint of the media asset.In some embodiments, the control circuitry 604 may make a simpledetermination to transcode the portion of the media asset from thebeginning of the media asset until the time point at which playback wassuspended. In some embodiments, the control circuitry 604 may employadditional intelligence to determine the portion of the media asset toalter. For example, the control circuitry 604 may determine whetherplayback was suspended close in time to the end of the media asset and,if close enough, determine that the portion of the media asset totranscode should be from the beginning to the end of the media asset,even though playback was suspended before the end of the media asset.The control circuitry 604 may determine whether the time point at whichplayback was suspended occurs within a threshold amount of time from theendpoint of the media asset. For example, the control circuitry 604 mayemploy a 1-minute threshold, and if playback of the media asset, wassuspended within 1 minute of the end of the media asset then the controlcircuitry 604 may consider the portion of the media asset to be from thebeginning to the end.

If the time point occurs within a threshold amount of time from theendpoint of the media asset, the control circuitry 604 continues process1000 at 1015 by identifying the first portion of the media asset as aportion of the media asset from a start point of the media asset to atime point in the media asset after where playback of the media assetwas suspended. If the time point occurs outside of the threshold amountof time from the endpoint of the media asset, process 1000 continues at1020 where control circuitry 604 identifies the first portion of themedia asset as a portion of the media asset from a start point of themedia asset to the time point in the media asset where playback of themedia asset was suspended.

FIG. 11 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for determiningthe quality level for storing a media asset, in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure. Process 1100 begins prior to transcodinga media asset, for example before step 920 of FIG. 9, and is used, inpart, by some embodiments to determine the quality reduction discussedwith reference to step 915 in FIG. 9. At 1105, control circuitry 604correlates the importance of the media asset with a target qualitylevel. In some embodiments, the control circuitry 604 evaluates theattributes of the media asset to determine weighted attribute scores.The control circuitry 604 combines the weighted attribute scores toproduce a normalized importance score and correlates the normalizedimportance score with a recommended target quality value. For example,the control circuitry 604 may consider the following attributes incomputing a normalized importance school: genre, run-length, currentquality level, original channel, title, actors, director, writer, andoriginal date/time. The importance score of a media asset may becalculated from the weighted scores. In some embodiments, the importancescore may be the average of the weighted scores. In some embodiments,the control circuitry 604 correlates the importance score of the mediaasset with a target quality level.

At 1110, control circuitry 604 continues process 1100 by determining astorage threshold associated with storage space required to store thefirst portion of the media asset. For example, control circuitry 604 maydetermine how much space is occupied by a media asset in storage 608 orin a storage on a remote server such as remote server 715. Process 1100continues at 1115, where control circuitry 604 determines a storagethreshold quality level associated with the first portion of the mediaasset, wherein the threshold quality level represents a quality level atwhich storing of the first portion of the media asset will not requiremore storage space than the storage threshold. At 1120, controlcircuitry 604 adjusts the target quality level so the target qualitylevel does not exceed the storage threshold quality level. Process 1100continues at 1125, where control circuitry 604 determines the amount ofquality by which to reduce the first quality level as the differencebetween the first quality level and the target quality level.

FIG. 12 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for determiningthe quality level for storing a media asset, in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure. Process 1200 begins prior to transcodinga media asset, for example before step 920 of FIG. 9 and is used, inpart, by some embodiments to determine the quality reduction discussedwith reference to step 915 in FIG. 9. At 1205, control circuitry 604correlates the importance of the media asset with a target quality levelin a manner similar to those described above. Process 1200 continues at1210, where control circuitry 604 determines a media asset categorybased on an attribute of the plurality of attributes. For example, thecontrol circuitry 604 may analyze a plurality of attributes to determinea media asset category or may base the category on a single attribute ofthe plurality of attributes.

The control circuitry 604 continues process 1200 by correlating themedia asset category with a category quality level at 1215. For example,the control circuitry 604 may determine that a media asset is an actionmovie rated “R” and that media assets in that category have a categoryquality level of 4K. It may be that the target quality level, based onother factors, was HD, and the control circuitry 604 may adjust thetarget quality to 4K based on the category quality level. Going theother direction, the control circuitry 604 may determine that a mediaasset is a children's program and that media assets in that categoryhave a category quality level of SDK. It may be that the target qualitylevel, based on other factors, was HD, and the control circuitry 604 mayadjust the target quality to SD based on the category quality level.

At 1220, control circuitry 604 continues process 1200 by adjusting thetarget quality level based on the category quality level. Process 1200continues at 1225, where control circuitry 604 determines the amount ofquality by which to reduce the first quality level as the differencebetween the first quality level and the target quality level.

FIG. 13 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for reverting analtered media asset to a higher quality format, in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure. Process 1300 begins after the controlcircuitry 604 alters the quality levels and formats of a stored mediaasset, for example after step 825 of FIG. 8.

At step 1305, control circuitry 604 receives a command to revert themedia asset from the second format to the first format. For example,control circuitry 604 may receive a user interaction such as describedwith reference to FIG. 2. In response to receiving the command, thecontrol circuitry 604 continues process 1300 at 1310 by determining anavailability of a replacement media asset in a format having the firstquality level, the replacement asset containing content similar to thetranscoded media asset and being in a format having a quality level thatdoes not fall below the first quality level. For example, the controlcircuitry 604 may determine that a first portion of the media asset isstored in SD and that an upcoming broadcast of the media asset will bein 4K. Therefore, the control circuitry 604 would be able to replace thefirst portion of the media asset by recording the first portion from theupcoming broadcast. The control circuitry 604 may determine that thefirst portion of the media asset is available for retrieval from aremote server 717 or media content source 716. In embodiments in whichthe control circuitry 604 is able to store portions of media assets insecondary storage, the control circuitry 604 may determine that thefirst portion is available in secondary storage. In some embodiments,the replacement asset does not have to be identical to the originalmedia asset. For example, if the original media asset was recorded frombroadcast television and the replacement asset is from an upcomingbroadcast, it is unlikely that the commercials will be the same and themedia asset may differ in some content. But the replacement media assetwill contain content similar to the media asset. Further, if thereplacement media asset is of lower quality than the currently stored,transcoded media asset, then there is little reason to retrieve thereplacement media asset. Therefore, typically the replacement mediaasset will identify as being in a format having a quality level thatexceeds the first quality level.

At 1315, the control circuitry 604 continues process 1300 by obtainingthe replacement asset based on the determined availability. Process 1300continues at 1320, where the control circuitry 604 stores thereplacement asset. For example, the control circuitry 604 may store thereplacement media asset in storage 608. At 1325, control circuitry 604removes the media asset. For example, control circuitry 604 may delete afile from storage 608 that contains the media asset.

FIG. 14 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for storing aportion of a media asset in a first format in secondary storage, inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. Process 1400continues after the control circuitry 604 detects that the thresholdperiod of time since the given time has passed, for example after step820 from FIG. 8.

At 1405, control circuitry 604 determines whether a secondary storagecontains the first portion of the media asset in the first format. Forexample, the secondary storage may be a secondary hard disk orsolid-state disk or other long-term storage device in storage 608. Thesecondary storage may also reside at a remote location such as a remoteserver 715. For example, the media guidance application may identify thefirst 25% of a stored media asset should be transcoded from 4K to HD.The media guidance application then checks whether the secondary storagecontains the first 25% of the stored media asset in 4K and may receivean indication of whether or not that portion of the media asset is insecondary storage and use that indication to determine, in part, whetherto store the first portion in secondary storage. For example, thecontrol circuitry 604 may determine that all of the media asset isstored in 4K and therefore the first portion, comprising the first 25%of the media asset, is in the secondary storage. In another example, thecontrol circuitry 604 may be checking whether the secondary storagecontains a first portion of the media asset in a lower quality level,such as SD quality. The control circuitry 604 may determine that thefirst portion exists in the secondary storage in a higher quality levelsuch as 4K. Therefore, the control circuitry 604 may determine thatstorage of the first portion in a lower quality level, e.g., SD quality,is redundant to the higher quality level storage. For example, thecontrol circuitry 604 may determine that secondary storage contains athird portion of the media asset. In response to determining thatsecondary storage contains the third portion of the media asset, thecontrol circuitry 604 determines whether a quality level of the thirdportion of the media asset falls below the first quality level anddetermines whether the third portion of the media asset comprisessimilar media content as the first portion of the media asset. Forexample, if the copy of the media asset from secondary storage and thefirst portion of the media asset are from two broadcasts, the assets maycontain different advertisements but otherwise contain similar contentfor the main program. If the control circuitry 604 determines that thirdportion comprises similar media content as the first portion of themedia asset and that the quality level of the third portion of the mediaasset does not fall below the first quality level (e.g. the content issimilar and the secondary storage does not contain a lesser qualitycopy), the control circuitry 604 may indicate not to store the firstportion of the media asset in the first quality level because it isredundant to what is already stored in the secondary storage.

At 1410, control circuitry 604 determines whether the importance of themedia asset exceeds a secondary storage importance threshold. Forexample, the control circuitry 604 may employ techniques such as thosedescribed above to determine an importance of a media asset that hasbeen adjusted for determining whether a media asset should be stored insecondary storage.

Process 1400 continues at 1415, where control circuitry 604 determineswhether to store, in the secondary storage, the first portion of themedia asset in the first format by determining that the secondarystorage does not contain the first portion of the media asset in thefirst format and determining that the importance of the media assetexceeds the secondary storage importance threshold. If control circuitry604 determines to store, in the secondary storage, the first portion ofthe media asset in the first format, the process continues at 1420 wherecontrol circuitry 604 stores, in the secondary storage, a copy of thefirst portion of the media asset in the first format.

FIG. 15 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for managingstorage of media assets in secondary storage, in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure. Process 1500 begins after the controlcircuitry 604 stores a portion of a media asset in secondary storage,for example after step 1420 from FIG. 14. The control circuitry 604identifies, in the secondary storage, a third portion of the media assetcomprising media content included within the first portion of the mediaasset at step 1505. Process 1500 continues at 1510, where the controlcircuitry 604 determines whether a quality level of the third portion ofthe media asset falls below the first quality level. If controlcircuitry 604 determines that the quality level of the third portion ofthe media asset falls below the first quality level, the controlcircuitry 604 removes the third portion of the media asset fromsecondary storage at 1515. For example, the control circuitry 604 maydetermine that the secondary storage contains an SD-quality copy of anepisode of “Classical Baby” that is currently in 4K and is being storedin the secondary storage. In response to determining that the qualitylevel of the third portion of the media asset falls below the firstquality level, the control circuitry 604 removes the third portion ofthe media asset from secondary storage.

FIG. 16 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for managingstorage of media assets in secondary storage, in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure. Process 1600 provides additionalintelligence for determining whether to store a portion of a media assetin secondary storage. In some embodiments, process 1600 begins after thecontrol circuitry 604 determines to store a portion of a media asset insecondary storage, for example after step 1415 from FIG. 14.

At 1605, control circuitry 604 determines whether secondary storagecontains a third portion of the media asset. For example, the controlcircuitry 604 may determine that the first 10 minutes of an episode of“Classical Baby” should be stored in HD in secondary storage. Thecontrol circuitry 604 may further determine that the first 15 minutes of“Classical Baby” exists in 4K in the secondary storage. If the controlcircuitry 604 determines that secondary storage contains the thirdportion of the media asset, then the control circuitry 604 continuesprocess 1600 by determining whether a quality level of the third portionof the media asset falls below the first quality level at 1610. At 1615,control circuitry 604 continues process 1600 by determining whether thethird portion of the media asset comprises similar media content as thefirst portion of the media asset. At 1620, control circuitry 604determines whether the third portion comprises similar media content asthe first portion of the media asset and whether the quality level ofthe third portion of the media asset does not fall below the firstquality level. If both conditions are met, the control circuitry 604indicates not to store the first portion of the media asset in the firstquality level. If the conditions are not both met, the control circuitry604 indicates that the first portion of the media asset should be storedin the secondary storage. Continuing the example above, controlcircuitry 604 determines that secondary storage contains the portion ofthe media asset, e.g. the first 10 minutes of “Classical Baby”, in asufficient quality level, e.g. 4K, such that additional storage is notneeded.

FIG. 17 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for managing thequality levels and formats used to store media assets, in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure. In some embodiments, thecontrol circuitry 604 may transcode the media asset when storing themedia asset to ensure that a media device, such as user equipment 704,associated with the storage of the media asset is capable of decodingand playing back the stored media asset.

Process 1700 occurs before storing a media asset that will be decodedand/or played back by a media device, for example before 805 of FIG. 8.The control circuitry 604 determines a playback capability of a deviceassociated with the media asset at 1705. For example, the controlcircuitry 604 may determine that a user equipment is only capable ofplaying SD video and therefore storage associated with that userequipment should be limited to SD storage to save space.

Process 1700 continues at 1710, where control circuitry 604 determines acurrent format of the media asset. For example, control circuitry 604may determine that an episode of “Classical Baby” is stored at a qualitylevel of 4K. At 1715, control circuitry 604 determines whether aplayback capability requirement associated with decoding the media assetin the current format exceeds the determined playback capability.Continuing the example, the playback capability is lower than 4K, it isSD. If the control circuitry 604 determines that the playback capabilityrequirement associated with decoding the media asset in the currentformat exceeds the determined playback capability, the control circuitry604 transcodes the media asset from the current format to the firstformat, wherein the first format is associated with a second playbackcapability requirement that does not exceed the determined playbackcapability at 1720.

In some embodiments, the control circuitry 604 determines the timeperiod based on a user associated with the storage of the media asset.FIG. 18 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for determining atime period to store a media asset before managing the quality levelsand formats used to store the media asset, in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure.

Process 1800 occurs before the control circuitry 604 accesses the dataentry associated with the stored media asset, e.g. before step 810 inFIG. 8. At 1805, the control circuitry 604 determines a user associatedwith the storing of the media asset. For example, the media guidanceapplication may receive interactions from a plurality of users and someusers may be given a higher priority for storage of media assets thanother users. When the control circuitry 604 receives a command to storea media asset, the control circuitry 604 identifies a user associatedwith that command, for example by retrieving a username or ID associatedwith a logged-in user.

Process 1800 continues at 1810, where control circuitry 604 determinesthe period of time for storing the media asset in the first format basedon the determined user. For example, a user may have a preference thathigh quality copies of media assets are held for only 1 week. Or thecontrol circuitry 604 may determine that between two users, thedetermined user has a lower storage priority and is therefore allottedstorage space for higher quality storage of media assets for a loweramount of time compared to the other user. At 1815, control circuitry604 continues process 1800 by storing the data entry indicating theperiod of time for storing the media asset in the first format based onthe determined user. For example, the control circuitry 604 may save thetime period in a data entry associated with the media asset as describedabove.

It should be noted that the processes described with reference to FIGS.8-18 or any step thereof could be performed on, or provided by, any ofthe devices shown in FIGS. 1-3 and 6-7. For example, any of theprocesses described with reference to FIGS. 8-18 may be executed bycontrol circuitry 604 (FIG. 6) as instructed by control circuitryimplemented on user equipment 702, 704, 706 (FIG. 7), and/or a userequipment device for playback of a media asset. In addition, one or moresteps of the processes described with reference to FIGS. 8-18 may beincorporated into or combined with one or more steps of any otherprocess or embodiment.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of each of FIGS. 8-18may be used with any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition,the steps and descriptions described in relation to FIGS. 8-18 may bedone in alternative orders or in parallel to further the purposes ofthis disclosure. For example, each of these steps may be performed inany order or in parallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lagor increase the speed of the system or method. Furthermore, it should benoted that any of the devices or equipment discussed in relation toFIGS. 1-3 and 6-7 could be used to perform one or more of the steps inFIGS. 8-18.

It will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that methodsinvolved in the present invention may be embodied in a computer programproduct that includes a computer-usable and/or -readable medium. Forexample, such a computer-usable medium may consist of a read-only memorydevice, such as a CD-ROM disk or conventional ROM device, or a randomaccess memory, such as a hard drive device or a computer diskette,having a computer-readable program code stored thereon. It should alsobe understood that methods, techniques, and processes involved in thepresent disclosure may be executed using processing circuitry. Forinstance, determining a position of a user may be performed, e.g., byprocessing circuitry 606 of FIG. 6. The processing circuitry, forinstance, may be a general purpose processor, a customized integratedcircuit (e.g., an ASIC), or a field-programmable gate array (FPGA)within user equipment 60, media content source 716, or media guidancedata source 718. For example, a profile, as described herein, may bestored in, and retrieved from, storage 608 of FIG. 6, or media guidancedata source 718 of FIG. 7. Furthermore, processing circuitry, or acomputer program, may update settings of user equipment 100 storedwithin storage 608 of FIG. 6 or media guidance data source 718 of FIG.7.

The processes discussed above are intended to be illustrative and notlimiting. One skilled in the art would appreciate that the steps of theprocesses discussed herein may be omitted, modified, combined, and/orrearranged, and any additional steps may be performed without departingfrom the scope of the invention. More generally, the above disclosure ismeant to be exemplary and not limiting. Only the claims that follow aremeant to set bounds as to what the present invention includes.Furthermore, it should be noted that the features and limitationsdescribed in any one embodiment may be applied to any other embodimentherein, and flowcharts or examples relating to one embodiment may becombined with any other embodiment in a suitable manner, done indifferent orders, or done in parallel. In addition, the systems andmethods described herein may be performed in real time. It should alsobe noted, the systems and/or methods described above may be applied to,or used in accordance with, other systems and/or methods.

While some portions of this disclosure may make reference to“convention,” any such reference is merely for the purpose of providingcontext to the invention(s) of the instant disclosure, and does not formany admission as to what constitutes the state of the art.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for reducing storage space occupied by amedia asset by adjusting quality levels of the media asset downward overtime, the method comprising: storing, at a given time, the media assetin a first format having a first quality level; retrieving, from adatabase, a data entry corresponding to the media asset; determining,based on the data entry, a threshold period of time for storing themedia asset in the first format; detecting whether the threshold periodof time since the given time has passed; in response to detecting thatthe threshold period of time since the given time has passed, altering afirst portion of the media asset from the first format having the firstquality level to a second format having a second quality level by:determining a plurality of attributes corresponding to the media assetbased on information indicated by the data entry; computing animportance of the media asset based on each attribute of the pluralityof attributes; determining an amount of quality by which to reduce thefirst quality level based, in part, on the importance of the mediaasset; and transcoding the first portion of the media asset from thefirst format to the second format by reducing the first quality level bythe determined amount to the second quality level.
 2. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising determining the first portion of the mediaasset by: detecting a time point in the media asset where playback ofthe media asset was suspended; determining whether the time point occurswithin a threshold amount of time from the endpoint of the media asset;and in response to determining that the time point occurs within athreshold amount of time from the endpoint of the media asset,identifying the first portion of the media asset as a portion of themedia asset from a start point of the media asset to a time point in themedia asset after where playback of the media asset was suspended; andin response to determining that the time point occurs outside of thethreshold amount of time from the endpoint of the media asset,identifying the first portion of the media asset as a portion of themedia asset from a start point of the media asset to the time point inthe media asset where playback of the media asset was suspended.
 3. Themethod of claim 1, wherein determining the amount of quality by which toreduce the first quality level further comprises: correlating theimportance of the media asset with a target quality level; determining astorage threshold associated with storage space required to store thefirst portion of the media asset; determining a storage thresholdquality level associated with the first portion of the media asset,wherein the threshold quality level represents a quality level at whichstoring of the first portion of the media asset will not require morestorage space than the storage threshold; adjusting the target qualitylevel so the target quality level does not exceed the storage thresholdquality level; and determining the amount of quality by which to reducethe first quality level as the difference between the first qualitylevel and the target quality level.
 4. The method of claim 1, whereindetermining the amount of quality by which to reduce the first qualitylevel further comprises: correlating the importance of the media assetwith a target quality level; determining a media asset category based onan attribute of the plurality of attributes; correlating the media assetcategory with a category quality level; adjusting the target qualitylevel based on the category quality level; and determining the amount ofquality by which to reduce the first quality level as the differencebetween the first quality level and the target quality level.
 5. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising: receiving a command to revert themedia asset from the second format to the first format; in response toreceiving the command: determining an availability of a replacementmedia asset in a format having the first quality level, the replacementasset containing content similar to the transcoded media asset and beingin a format having a quality level that does not fall below the firstquality level; obtaining the replacement asset based on the determinedavailability; storing the replacement asset; and removing the mediaasset.
 6. The method of claim 1, further comprising: further in responseto detecting that the threshold period of time since the given time haspassed, managing storage of the media asset in a secondary storage by:determining whether a secondary storage contains the first portion ofthe media asset in the first format; determining whether the importanceof the media asset exceeds a secondary storage importance threshold;determining whether to store, in the secondary storage, the firstportion of the media asset in the first format by determining that thesecondary storage does not contain the first portion of the media assetin the first format and determining that the importance of the mediaasset exceeds the secondary storage importance threshold; and inresponse to determining to store in the secondary storage, the firstportion of the media asset in the first format, storing, in thesecondary storage, a copy of the first portion of the media asset in thefirst format.
 7. The method of claim 6, wherein managing the storage ofthe media asset in the secondary storage further comprises: identifying,in the secondary storage, a third portion of the media asset comprisingmedia content included within the first portion of the media asset;determining whether a quality level of the third portion of the mediaasset falls below the first quality level; and in response todetermining that the quality level of the third portion of the mediaasset falls below the first quality level, removing the third portion ofthe media asset from secondary storage.
 8. The method of claim 6,wherein determining whether to store, in the secondary storage, thefirst portion of the media asset in the first format further comprises:determining whether secondary storage contains a third portion of themedia asset; and in response to determining that secondary storagecontains the third portion of the media asset: determining whether aquality level of the third portion of the media asset falls below thefirst quality level; determining whether the third portion of the mediaasset comprises similar media content as the first portion of the mediaasset; and in response to determining that third portion comprisessimilar media content as the first portion of the media asset and thatthe quality level of the third portion of the media asset does not fallbelow the first quality level, indicating not to store the first portionof the media asset in the first quality level.
 9. The method of claim 1,wherein storing, at the given time, the media asset in the first formathaving the first quality level further comprises: determining a playbackcapability of a device associated with the media asset; determining acurrent format of the media asset; determining whether a playbackcapability requirement associated with decoding the media asset in thecurrent format exceeds the determined playback capability; and inresponse to determining that the playback capability requirementassociated with decoding the media asset in the current format exceedsthe determined playback capability, transcoding the media asset from thecurrent format to the first format, wherein the first format isassociated with a second playback capability requirement that does notexceed the determined playback capability.
 10. The method of claim 1,further comprising: determining a user associated with the storing ofthe media asset; determining the period of time for storing the mediaasset in the first format based on the determined user; and storing thedata entry indicating the period of time for storing the media asset inthe first format based on the determined user.
 11. A system for reducingstorage space occupied by a media asset by adjusting quality levels ofthe media asset downward over time, the system comprising: storagecircuitry configured to: store, at a given time, the media asset in afirst format having a first quality level; communication circuitryconfigured to: retrieve, from a database, a data entry corresponding tothe media asset; control circuitry configured to: determine, based onthe data entry, a threshold period of time for storing the media assetin the first format; detect whether the threshold period of time sincethe given time has passed; in response to detecting that the thresholdperiod of time since the given time has passed, alter a first portion ofthe media asset from the first format having the first quality level toa second format having a second quality level by: determining aplurality of attributes corresponding to the media asset based oninformation indicated by the data entry; computing an importance of themedia asset based on each attribute of the plurality of attributes;determining an amount of quality by which to reduce the first qualitylevel based, in part, on the importance of the media asset; andtranscoding the first portion of the media asset from the first formatto the second format by reducing the first quality level by thedetermined amount to the second quality level.
 12. The system of claim11, wherein the control circuitry is further configured determine thefirst portion of the media asset by: detecting a time point in the mediaasset where playback of the media asset was suspended; determiningwhether the time point occurs within a threshold amount of time from theendpoint of the media asset; and in response to determining that thetime point occurs within a threshold amount of time from the endpoint ofthe media asset, identifying the first portion of the media asset as aportion of the media asset from a start point of the media asset to atime point in the media asset after where playback of the media assetwas suspended; and in response to determining that the time point occursoutside of the threshold amount of time from the endpoint of the mediaasset, identifying the first portion of the media asset as a portion ofthe media asset from a start point of the media asset to the time pointin the media asset where playback of the media asset was suspended. 13.The system of claim 11, wherein the control circuitry is furtherconfigured, when determining the amount of quality by which to reducethe first quality level, to: correlate the importance of the media assetwith a target quality level; determine a storage threshold associatedwith storage space required to store the first portion of the mediaasset; determine a storage threshold quality level associated with thefirst portion of the media asset, wherein the threshold quality levelrepresents a quality level at which storing of the first portion of themedia asset will not require more storage space than the storagethreshold; adjust the target quality level so the target quality leveldoes not exceed the storage threshold quality level; and determine theamount of quality by which to reduce the first quality level as thedifference between the first quality level and the target quality level.14. The system of claim 11, wherein the control circuitry is configured,when determining the amount of quality by which to reduce the firstquality level, to: correlate the importance of the media asset with atarget quality level; determine a media asset category based on anattribute of the plurality of attributes; correlate the media assetcategory with a category quality level; adjust the target quality levelbased on the category quality level; and determine the amount of qualityby which to reduce the first quality level as the difference between thefirst quality level and the target quality level.
 15. The system ofclaim 11, further comprising: input circuitry configured to: receive acommand to revert the media asset from the second format to the firstformat; wherein the control circuitry is further configured, in responseto receiving the command, to: determine an availability of a replacementmedia asset in a format having the first quality level, the replacementasset containing content similar to the transcoded media asset and beingin a format having a quality level that does not fall below the firstquality level; obtain the replacement asset based on the determinedavailability; and wherein the storage circuitry is further configured,in response to receiving the command, to: store the replacement asset;and remove the media asset.
 16. The system of claim 11, wherein thecontrol circuitry is further configured to: further in response todetecting that the threshold period of time since the given time haspassed, manage storage of the media asset in a secondary storage by:determining whether a secondary storage contains the first portion ofthe media asset in the first format; determining whether the importanceof the media asset exceeds a secondary storage importance threshold;determining whether to store, in the secondary storage, the firstportion of the media asset in the first format by determining that thesecondary storage does not contain the first portion of the media assetin the first format and determining that the importance of the mediaasset exceeds the secondary storage importance threshold; and inresponse to determining to store in the secondary storage, the firstportion of the media asset in the first format, storing, in thesecondary storage, a copy of the first portion of the media asset in thefirst format.
 17. The system of claim 16, wherein the control circuitryis further configured, when managing the storage of the media asset inthe secondary storage, to: identify, in the secondary storage, a thirdportion of the media asset comprising media content included within thefirst portion of the media asset; determine whether a quality level ofthe third portion of the media asset falls below the first qualitylevel; and in response to determining that the quality level of thethird portion of the media asset falls below the first quality level,remove the third portion of the media asset from secondary storage. 18.The system of claim 16, wherein the control circuitry is furtherconfigured, when determining whether to store, in the secondary storage,the first portion of the media asset in the first format, to: determinewhether secondary storage contains a third portion of the media asset;and in response to determining that secondary storage contains the thirdportion of the media asset: determine whether a quality level of thethird portion of the media asset falls below the first quality level;determine whether the third portion of the media asset comprises similarmedia content as the first portion of the media asset; and in responseto determining that third portion comprises similar media content as thefirst portion of the media asset and that the quality level of the thirdportion of the media asset does not fall below the first quality level,indicate not to store the first portion of the media asset in the firstquality level.
 19. The system of claim 11, wherein the control circuitryis further configured, when storing, at the given time, the media assetin the first format having the first quality level, to: determine aplayback capability of a device associated with the media asset;determine a current format of the media asset; determine whether aplayback capability requirement associated with decoding the media assetin the current format exceeds the determined playback capability; and inresponse to determining that the playback capability requirementassociated with decoding the media asset in the current format exceedsthe determined playback capability, transcode the media asset from thecurrent format to the first format, wherein the first format isassociated with a second playback capability requirement that does notexceed the determined playback capability.
 20. The system of claim 11,wherein the control circuitry is further configured to: determine a userassociated with the storing of the media asset; determine the period oftime for storing the media asset in the first format based on thedetermined user; and store the data entry indicating the period of timefor storing the media asset in the first format based on the determineduser.